According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has been in talks with major apps including Snapchat and Pinterest about the project which would see Jobs' Mob distribute adverts across its collective apps.

Apple would share revenue with the apps displaying the ads, with the split varying from app to app.

The new ad effort would expand on the “nearly $1 billion” business of search ads, which it introduced to the App Store in 2016. In addition to app ads being display in search results in the App Store, developers could include advertisements in search results within their apps.

It is all early days yet. It appears Apple’s latest digital advertising effort will serve as an expansion of the existing search ad business introduced two years ago. The new effort won’t look like iAds, which was open to selling goods and services through ad banners in apps, and instead, continue to push ads for apps sold on the App Store.

Apple has also enhanced its search ads platform for developers with the ability to test multiple screenshots for search ad results — enabling developers to A/B test which screenshots result in transactions more often.  There is a weakness in the cunning plan. It depends on Apple's platforms like the iPhone and iPad remaining popular.