Your iPhone may soon have more ads

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Maps, Books, and Podcasts are some of the apps that come pre-installed on your Apple device. According to a report from Mark Gurman, Apple is testing search ads in Maps, which could display recommendations when you search for restaurants, stores, or other nearby businesses.

Apple already implements a similar advertising model on the App Store, as developers can pay to have their app promoted on a search page for a specific query. Businesses would pay to appear at the top of search results when users enter certain search terms, as noted by Gurman.

Gurman thinks that Apple could put ads in its books and Podcasts apps. Publishers may be able to place ads in areas within each app or pay to get their content placed higher in search results. Maps is currently ad-free.

Gurman expects Apple to add ads to the Today tab and app download pages, which tracks with previous reports from 9to5Mac, Apple Insider, and MacRumors. The Today tab will display larger cards with the word "Ad" placed beneath the app's name, while individual app pages will be highlighted in blue.

According to Gurman, Apple could create a lower-priced ad-supported tier for Apple TV Plus by the end of the year, similar to what Disney has done. Although it has started showing ads during its Friday Night Baseball livestreams, Apple TV Plus is only offering a $4.99 per month ad-free plan.

In 2016 Apple began showing ads on the App Store. In September of last year, the company started asking users if they want to enable the Personalized Ads that appear on these apps, in compliance with its own ATT policy that costs social platforms billions of dollars.

ATT gives users the option of disabling the tracking tools. It may have contributed to the growth of Apple's advertising sector as businesses scramble to rethink their advertising strategies. According to data obtained from research firm Omdia, Apple's advertising business grew by more than 200 percent in 2011.

It is possible that Apple is looking to expand its advertising business even more after it opened up more ad slots on its App Store. Insider reported in May that Apple is planning to restructure its services business to focus more on streaming and advertising. The services arm of Apple saw a 12 percent increase in revenue.