The YouTube app on iOS has been one of the native apps since the iPhone first came out. That is no more. Starting with iOS6 Beta 4, YouTube is not included on the device.
According to Apple’s official statement, “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.”
The YouTube app was created and kept up (or not kept up) by Apple, not Google. Users can still go to YouTube.com to watch videos and I have no doubt that the Google app will be far better than Apple’s version. This could turn out to be a good thing for iOS users who don’t have to live with a sub-par YouTube app that never gets updated and is outshined by the web version of YouTube.
Depending on what you believe, this could be more of Apple’s crusade to eliminate Google from the picture. Or it could be Google wanting to monetize their YouTube videos, which they can’t do through an app built by Apple. Either way, the iPhone seems to be just one step away from becoming an entirely Google free phone by default.
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