By Rita Deutschbein | Jul 13, 2023 12:24 p.m
Apple has been showing ads on iPhone and iPad for a while now. Apparently this is a lucrative business, since the manufacturer will expand the overlays in the future. Third-party advertising is now also possible.
Will Apple spam the iPhone and iPad with ads in the future? In view of the company’s current actions, this concern is entirely justified. For example, there have been paid ads in the App Store for months that are marked with the abbreviation “Ad” for Advertisement. So far, this has primarily been their own content, such as pushed apps and posts. Just a year ago, we reported that Apple doesn’t seem to be planning any third-party advertising. But that has now changed.
Now also third-party advertising in Apple’s App Store
Anyone who is currently looking around the App Store will occasionally come across classic advertisements. They basically look like the previously advertised apps marked with “Ad”, but praise external services and shops. TECHBOOK itself came across two of these advertisements from third-party providers in one fell swoop in the App Store. One was an ad for Uber on the home page in the Today section, and the other was an ad for the new online shop Temu within the App Store search.
Third-party advertising in Apple’s App Store. Photo: TECHBOOK
A while ago it was unthinkable that Apple would display third-party advertising on the iPhone and iPad. For a long time there was no indication that Apple was only thinking about displaying ads for third-party shops, fast food, fashion items or the like. In the past, the company had already failed with such an advertising concept. Steve Jobs even spoke out vehemently against advertising in Apple’s services, and the manufacturer used its “ad-free” strategy as an argument for its own products for a long time. People often took offense at the manufacturers of Android smartphones, who sometimes integrate advertising more, sometimes less extensively on their devices. But now that Apple has also discovered advertising as a source of income and is using it more and more intensively, the company has to swallow its earlier words.
The procedure is not surprising, however. Like many other large corporations, Apple is a publicly traded company and therefore strives for high sales and profits. Advertising is a simple and lucrative way to do this, which is also being used more and more frequently in other sectors. It is not for nothing that so many streaming providers are now advertising, commercials appear more frequently on TV and manufacturers of televisions, smartphones and others display short spots or ads on their system interfaces. So it seems logical that Apple also wants to play the game.
Advertising also means data tracking
Whenever ads are displayed on devices, there is always the factor of data. Because the providers track the preferences of the users in order to be able to play out ads as well as possible. Apple itself writes in the iPhone manual that advertising is displayed in the “App Store”, “Apple News” and “Stocks” apps. Although data from other apps should not be tapped, the search and download history may be used to display relevant advertising. It also says:
In the Apple News and Stocks apps, advertising is based in part on the content you read or follow. This includes publishers for which you have enabled the sending of communications and the type of publication to which you are subscribed. The articles you read will not be used to serve you targeted advertising outside of these apps. Information gathered about you from what you read is associated with a random ID, not your Apple ID.
Apple in the iPhone User Guide
Since 2021, those users who want to prevent data tracking on their iPhone have benefited from a feature introduced with the update to iOS 14.5 called App Tracking Transparency (ATT). If advertisers want to track activities in apps and on websites, they must first ask users for their permission. And in the settings you can also check which data the advertisers and Apple have access to. This works as follows: Navigate to “Privacy & Security” in the settings and select “Apple Ads” and then “Show information for targeted advertising”. In the “Apple Advertising” section, users can also object to the use of personal data by deactivating the “Personalized Advertising” option. However, the latter does not mean that Apple no longer displays any advertising on the iPhone. Instead, no personalized spots appear, but randomly selected spots.
TECHBOOK meint
“Don’t be too quick to speak up and be complacent – this advice applies to Apple too. For a long time, the company made fun of other manufacturers when they advertised them. Now the apple company is doing the same, and you can’t even blame them for that. Because nowadays you can hardly make a profit with devices alone. It is not for nothing that the software is increasingly coming into focus with new functions – with manufacturers and users, as well as with advertising partners. Ads are still moderate on the iPhone, so personally, they don’t bother me that much. Still, because if more ads are played out in the future, that could change. I already have to be careful when searching in the App Store to see whether I’m really getting the app I’m looking for or an advertised app.” Rita Deutschbein, Editor-in-Chief