YouTube App Won't Come Preloaded on Next iPhone or Any iOS 6 Device
Get a new iPhone or iPad and you'll get a handful of preloaded apps - Apple's Calculator, Newsstand, App Store, and YouTube, just to name a few. But when Apple releases the next version of its iOS software - iOS 6 - in the fall, the YouTube app won't be on the list.
"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," Apple's Trudy Muller told ABC News. Google, which owns YouTube, didn't immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.
While the YouTube app will stay in iOS 5, those who update their iPhones or iPads to iOS 6 in the fall will no longer have the YouTube app out of the box; they'll have to download it separately from the App Store. And YouTube isn't the only Google app that will be missing in iOS 6 - Apple's replacing Google Maps with its own Maps app, which was previewed earlier this summer.
Apple and Google have continued to battle it out in the mobile phone market as Apple sues Samsung for copying its products, including its hardware and software. Samsung's phones and tablets all use Google's Android operating system. AllThingsD suggests that Google might have already been compromising on the app with the lack of ads and missing content.
iOS 6 is expected to launch in September alongside the new iPhone (which many think will be called the iPhone 5). Google has not said when it plans to release its standalone YouTube app.
Update: Google has just issued the following statement: "We are working with Apple to ensure we have the best possible YouTube experience for iOS users."