Apple already sells ads, and in fact restricts some technology to advertising partners. WebGL, full screen ads etc. They also have a patent on unskippable ads.
I don't know why people don't treat statements like that with enough cynicism.
They made iAd so they would control the major advertising network on iOS and as a result could limit the privacy implications. iAd is by far the least intrusive major advertising network.
Sure, but I find it quite unfair to say Apple doesn't sell Ads when they not only own their own exclusive Ad network, they control their entire platform, own many ad related patents and actively restricted access to new technologies to their advertisers in order they could outcompete anything else on iOS.
I don't know why people don't treat statements like that with enough cynicism.