Apple and ads… these are not two words that you often hear in the same sentence. To be fair, the Cupertino company has consistently prioritized users’ privacy over ad revenue, a decision that has been received with both praise and criticism, depending on who you ask.
At any rate, Apple does make some use of ads, just much less so than most other tech giants. The App Store, the News and Stocks default apps all feature ads to some extent. It should be noted that they are significantly less intrusive than the ones you see from the likes of Google, but they are there nonetheless.
However, ads are set to become a much more prominent part of the Apple ecosystem, and users might have to accept that they will need to stomach more of them when using their iPhones. At least that is what Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman thinks, a prominent tech analyst and industry insider, who boasts an impeccable track record on all things Apple.
Gurman shares in his Power On newsletter that ads should be making their way to a couple of other default Apple apps. He notes that the likeliest candidates are Apple Books, Apple Podcasts and the Maps app. He also does not anticipate “Apple going back into the business of serving up ads inside of third-party apps”. For the time being, that is.
According to Gurman, ads in Apple’s Maps could work similarly to the way they do in the App Store at present. He gives the example of a sushi restaurant that has decided to pay its due to Apple. In exchange, the venue would have a higher position in the search results, when users type in “sushi” for instance.
In the Podcasts and Books apps, paying publishers could have their works displayed more prominently in the search results. Similar mechanisms are being explored for Apple TV+. It will be interesting to see how Apple, the staunchest supporter of piracy and a clean UI, make ads work in the context of the iPhone.
