Highlights:
- On iPhones, Apple offers customers the option to limit personalised ads.
- Apple may soon include ads on more in house apps like Podcasts and Maps.
- The company launched the ATT feature to aid users in protecting personal data.
Apple iPhones are known to offer a clean interface with no unnecessary third-party apps called bloatware. Most of the proprietary apps that come pre-installed on iPhones, including Podcasts, Maps, News, Music, Messages, and others, can be deleted by users. However, according to a report by Apple expert and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is looking at new revenue-generating opportunities. What is the simplest way to boost revenues? One word – advertisements.
According to the report, more Apple proprietary apps could soon show ads. To help third-party developers in promoting their products, the company already runs ads on the Apple App Store as well as its own News and Stocks apps. This applies to iPads, Macs, and iPhones. According to Gurman, promotional content may soon appear on Apple Maps and Podcasts, and the number of ads on existing apps will rise. It is evident that unlike many Android counterparts, iPhones won’t bring spammy notifications. The report also emphasises the possibility of an ad-supported Apple TV+ tier – like Netflix’s ad-supported subscription.
Whether or not these ads will benefit users is the important question in this case. For instance, many makers of Android smartphones generate revenue through advertising and third-party apps, but this money subsidises end users. It mostly helps businesses in keeping low smartphone prices. On the other hand, iPhones are infamously costly. Although we cannot expect third-party apps to have any limits on ads, we most definitely don’t expect them in their own applications.
How Apple will display ads on its proprietary apps is another important question. Are these going to be generic ads or ones that have been tailored after looking at personal data? On this issue, Gurman does provide some explanations. He claims that Apple would make use of user information gathered through its own apps. The option to limit personalised ads is always available to users by head to Settings > Privacy > Personalised ads.
Apple does not also get information from third-party apps. This is why the company last year included a mechanism to prevent businesses like Meta and Snap from using this business strategy. In fact, the implementation of ATT (App Tracking Transparency) had a significant impact on Meta. For the first time, the company reported a decline in revenue during the most recent financial quarter.
Apple has not yet officially confirmed the report. In India, the Apple News app is still not available.
