* Apple Maps to display paid ads, competing with Google

* Apple ( AAPL ) emphasizes privacy controls in new map ads

* Regulatory pressures on Apple's ( AAPL ) revenue streams in

Europe

* Apple ( AAPL ) revamps business tools, aiding small business

device management

By Stephen Nellis

SAN FRANCISCO, March 24 (Reuters) - Apple ( AAPL ) on

Tuesday said it plans to introduce paid ads to its maps service

in the U.S. and Canada this summer, marking its entry into a

business long dominated by Alphabet's Google.

Apple Maps, an app that comes bundled on hundreds of

millions of iPhones and other devices each year, will display

paid advertising on top of existing organic search results.

Advertisers will be able to claim their physical location

through a set of business tools, which Apple ( AAPL ) also said Tuesday

it plans to revamp next month.

Apple ( AAPL ) did not say how much revenue it expects to generate

from the new service, or how many users of its 2.5 billion

active devices regularly use its maps service. But the move

launches Apple ( AAPL ), which has long sought to set itself apart from

rivals who generate most of their sales from advertising by

playing up its data privacy controls, into more direct

competition with both Google and Meta Platforms ( META ) for

local advertising dollars.

Apple ( AAPL ) said that its new map ads will maintain its privacy

controls and that a user's location and the ads they view and

interact with will not be associated with the user's Apple ( AAPL )

account. The company also said that what it calls "personal

data" stays on a user's device, is not collected or stored by

Apple ( AAPL ) and is not shared with third parties.

The move comes at a time when some of Apple's ( AAPL ) biggest cash

generators - its business of taking a commission on app

developer subscriptions and the billions of dollars a year

Google sends to Apple ( AAPL ) for sending search traffic to Google - are

under regulatory pressure in Europe and threatened by new AI

technology that is reducing traditional search traffic.

The move could also intensify scrutiny of Apple's ( AAPL ) efforts to

block rivals such as Meta from gathering data on Apple ( AAPL ) users,

which Meta and European publishers have opposed on antitrust

grounds as Apple ( AAPL ) ramps up its own ad business.

In addition to map advertising, Apple ( AAPL ) said Tuesday it plans

to revamp its tools for businesses, with improved tools to set

up and distribute Apple ( AAPL ) devices to employees without needing

special expertise. Among the other changes, Apple ( AAPL ) plans to make

free a tool for managing devices that was previously a paid

tool.