Apple says it’s bringing ads to its Maps app this summer
That could be another boon for its fast-growing, high-margin Services division.
Apple Maps users just trying to find their way in the world might find their paths a little more cluttered by paid suggestions this summer, as Apple has announced new plans to introduce ads into its Maps app.
Through a new free platform called Apple Business, available in more than 200 countries and regions starting April 14, Apple will allow retailers to buy priority placements in search queries and its new “Suggested Places” list in the app — and US and Canadian users can expect to see the sponsored spots crop up by summertime. Rival Google Maps, which Apple has been contending with for years, introduced a similar suggestion-based bidding system back in 2013.
The move is just another part in Apple’s push to squeeze advertising sales from its apps and services, having added advertising slots within the App Store, Apple TV, and Apple News in recent years. Those efforts have been paying off, helping to boost margins in the company’s Services division to an eye-popping 75% — more than double the margin it ekes out from the Products segment, home to its iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other devices.
Yes, while Products brought in almost $200 billion more in sales than Apple’s Services last year, there was only a little over $30 billion worth of difference between the divisions’ gross margin figures.
The App Store remains at the core of Apple’s Services business, with some ~$20 billion in annual revenue, thanks to the cash it takes from in-app purchases and the controversial “Apple tax” — the 15% to 30% commission the platform pockets from paid downloads. At the same time, the iCloud+ storage subscription — which a whopping 70% of recent US Apple device buyers paid for in Q4 2025, per CIRP estimations — chips in, alongside subscription and advertising revenues from News, Music, TV, etc.
Think different?
Apple, broadly conspicuous by its absence from the rest of Big Tech’s unending AI spending party, has cashed in on the craze in other ways, with reports that the company is expected to make $1 billion in App Store fees this year just from other companies’ generative-AI apps.
Maybe with the buffer of having just posted its best quarter for iPhone sales on record, and an increasing cash pile mounting behind its ultra-profitable Services division, Apple might not completely mind being left out of some parts of the AI journey — especially if it can just ask Maps for some paid recommendations along the way.
