iMore is getting a steady stream of reports that iOS 6 beta 4 removes the native YouTube app from the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. This isn't a huge surprise, as iMore reported back in May that Apple was going to be using iOS 6 to remove as much of Google as possible from their mobile operating system. Access to iOS user data is hugely valuable to Google, and Apple doesn't want Google having that kind of competitive advantages. That's why Apple has gone to the trouble of building their own native iOS 6 maps app, that's why they're using Siri to intermediate and broker queries away from Google, and it might also be why the YouTube app is gone from the iOS Home screen.
9to5 Mac caught wind of the removal almost immediately, and other sites are reporting it now as well. But here's thing -- it might not be entirely bad news. I might even be good news. Frankly, the ongoing animosity between Apple and Google has lead to iOS having substantially worse Google-powered apps than Android has been enjoying for a while now. While Apple and Google argued over turn-by-turn and Latitude, Android got better and better maps. The iOS YouTube app also lagged behind the Android YouTube app so much many preferred to use the pure Google web app instead.
For those of us who want the best of Apple and the best of Google, removing Google from the built-in apps -- apps that only get updated when Apple updates the entire iOS firmware stack, if Apple chooses to include them in that update -- could end up being great news.
For the same reasons Apple releases many of their apps into the App Store, and Google has decoupled some of their from the core Android OS and moved them into Google Play, If Google releases proper Google Maps and YouTube apps into the iOS App Store. Due to past federal scrutiny, it would be hard if not impossible for Apple to reject them, and it would allow Google to be Google and Apple to be Apple, and let iOS users once again enjoy the best of both worlds.
iOS YouTube was introduced after Apple first showed off the iPhone but before it launched in 2007. Back then, getting video on mobile was by no means and easy task. Times have changed. Flash on mobile was attempted and failed. H.264 video has become more and more prominent. The iOS YouTube app is no longer needed. YouTube.com or a dedicated Google YouTube app would far better serve Apple and Google users.
Just please, Google, don't make it a thin UIWebView wrapper around the mobile YouTube site. If you release a YouTube app -- and I really hope you do -- make it as good if not better than your much-improved Google+ for iOS app.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/TbDHQSYjOfw/story01.htm
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