Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the device has featured a standalone YouTube app allowing the device’s users to access the boundless videos available on the popular website.
It seems however with today’s release of Apple’s iOS 6 beta 4 that the YouTube app is no longer part of the operating systems default option. Considering that the OS will be used on the upcoming iPhone, iPhones 3GS-4S, the past two iPads, the iPod touch and Apple TV, this is a significant change across the Apple ecosystem.
The move comes as Google, who have owned YouTube since 2006 and Apple have been on less than amicable terms. Apple announced at the recent WWDC that they had also opted out of using Google Maps in the upcoming iOS 6, electing instead to use their own mapping service. Google also has a vested interest in the ongoing Apple and Samsung trial. Samsung is the world’s largest smartphone maker and with a killer tablet lineup to boot the company moves a ton of devices. Samsung’s products happen to run on Google owned Android platforms, obviously creating financial impact for Google.
According to The Verge, Apple stated the following regarding the split “Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.”
Within the same story, Apple also confirmed that iOS 5 devices will keep the YouTube app in its current state. All in all, the decision is an interesting one that will serve as news fodder for some time, however we are quite sure that the end result will be a better YouTube experience for end users in the capable hands of Google. Their app should prove superior to the standalone Apple version, which has languished and bothered fans of the service since its inception.
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