War? YouTube app disappears from iOS 6 beta 4 as Apple breaks Google ties
9to5mac.com
9to5mac.com
It means the current app, which was made by Apple for iOS 1 and barely updated, can now be replaced by a Google-made YouTube app available in the App Store.
The new app will presumably also support all of YouTube's new features since 2007, notably videos with ads (i.e. music videos).
Remember, the only reason the app was ever built-in is because the App Store didn't exist on the first iPhone. Separating it into the App Store will also make it easier to update regularly (see Apple's own iBooks app).
I wrote more about this in my wish list for iOS 6: http://raviudeshi.com/2012/06/ios-6
Because of its insistance that I watch YouTube not in the browser but inside the app, it's the only default app I forcefully removed by turning it off in parental controls.
The YouTube app seemed necessary to jumpstarting iOS interest in users way back when ... which is way back when now, and the need for bundling is past.
Not war. Maturity.
I know Google are hiring iOS software engineers for YouTube right now in London, so I'm sure there will be some official native offering appearing in the future.
I have little doubt they were planning to remove it the entire time and it just wasn't a high priority issue until the license expired in between beta 3 and beta 4.
Because back in 2007 there was no such thin as "HTML5 video", and youtube was already the most popular video site by a pretty long shot. So they built that one in via a dedicated application.
Edit: Apple has issued a statement (http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/6/3223775/apple-youtube-ios6)
"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."
In Mountain Lion, there is now a share button that goes to Vimeo but there is no YouTube option. This equals the playing field a little for other video companies.
Worst case the perfectly usable website will be there, but Google's YouTube app will likely be a lot better and have the ability to be updated.
However, it's in bad need of an update (it's ugly as sin). So I won't complain if Google releases a version on the App Store instead.
Their iMap app does not translate well on the web like the previous Google Map app did. When I am on a website that has a map link, it no longer opens up the built in map app nor maps direction from my current location. Since Google Maps is used across the web, when I click on a link it now takes me to Google Maps in the browser. But, that doesn't automatically map directions for me nor do turn by turn navigation.
This change and a few others in iOS6 have degraded my iPhone user experience.
The main thing I don't understand is why is Google not fighting back completely. Why would they make a YouTube app that makes the iOS platform more attractive? Why not block iOS devices from accesing Youtube altogether, as well as Gmail and even Search? Apple is dead set on trying to kill Android but Google isn't trying to kill iOS, it's weird.
So, as commenters on that article said, use Parental Restrictions to forbid YouTube app and enjoy it in Safari directly.
But in doing so they antagonized Apple with whom they had a good relationship, and now find their services being replaced or dropped (first maps and now YouTube, and iOS 6 and Mountain Lion not including Google sharing options).
Given that Google makes four times as much money from iOS then it does Android [1] I wonder if this was a good plan? If Apple replaced Google search with Bing as the default, it would have to hurt a lot. On the other hand if Apple did all this anyway but Google didn't have Android up its sleeve it would be in a much worse situation then it is now.
[1] http://gizmodo.com/5897457/google-makes-four-times-more-mone...
Being at complete mercy of Apple.
Google has Android, which has a bigger market share than iOS. If Apple kicks out all Google's services from iOS, Google still has Android.
If Google didn't have Android and Apple kicked them out of iOS, they would have nothing.
This is a long term game for both players. Google's strategic plan is to advance Android. Apple's strategic plan is to advance iOS and don't be dependent of Google, which is why they are kicking out Google's maps and invest in their own solution, even though I'm certain it's way more costly for them to do it compared to licensing Google's service.
Both Google and Apple act perfectly reasonably given their long-term strategy.
Google ran the risk of finding themselves in precisely that position with the advent of mobile devices.
As much as I'd rather Apple and Google - two of the most exciting companies out there - were getting on, I don't think anything Google is doing is that different to what Apple would do were the situation reversed.
Economically the whole Android strategy doesn't make any sense to Google. From a user's perspective it would be much better if Google provides the backend service coupled with Apple's portable devices. Now we end up in this frustrating market with two options: 1) good services + mediocre devices, and 2) mediocre services + good devices.
(1) keep it's main product (Search) from being locked out (by MS/Apple/Facebook), set aside (made nondefault) or emasculated (ad blockers eventually). This is the main point of Chrome as well as G+ to some extent.
(2) minimize frictions that reduce searches. In the case of Android they give away the OS because if the OS costs more the phone costs more and fewer people switch to an internet phone. For Chrome the push for speed attacks the problem at a different angle - faster internet = happier customer = more searches per person.
There are other benefits and goals Google has with this -- yes they want to boost G+, yes they want to keep the data flowing and building, yes they have grand plans down the road -- but those are all secondary.
The Youtube mobile site has better and more complete functionality. But that was completely missing on the native app.
Unless you didn't use suscriptions, check comments, etc. The native app, worked perfectly.
Its makers parted ways and it was left unloved.
If you read the text it was "our license was up."
Basically in the first iPhone Apple licensed a bunch of apps from Google to create the iPhone ecosystem, Maps, Mail, Search, video, and one other which I've forgotten. That was when they were friends, now they hate each other, so Apple has been building its own replacements. And I'm sure when the license renewal came up Apple took a harder stance.
Youtube and the mail client are pretty much the last things to go. That was part of the reason I was surprised Apple didn't pick up Sparrow. When Google got it I said "aha" this will be the Mail tool from Google that you can get in the App store when Apple dumps them off the phone.
They solved this problem a while ago. Try it out. Grab your iOS device, search a VEVO video in MobileSafari. Assuming the owner didn't block all mobile playback, it'll play just fine, including a pre-roll ad that you can't skip.
The YouTube app for iOS devices only lists fully unprotected videos with no advertising or restrictions. However, MobileSafari has never had this restriction and has offered ad-supported YouTube videos via HTML5 for quite some time now.
The content owner gets to choose to block the video, or to share in the advertising. The Youtube app on iOS doesn't have advertising, so there is nothing to share in, so the videos end up blocked. The web site (and the future Google YouTube app) will surely have advertising, and so they'll have these vids.
Edit: This isn't just the actual VEVO music videos... it's also all the "songs with lyrics onscreen" videos that come up on a Youtube search for a song.
Already does. More evidence this was in the pipeline the entire time, Google has already devised a scheme to feed unskippable ads to devices that use their own player such as iOS.
You can experience it right now, just go to youtube.com in Mobile Safari and look for a music video. Most likely you'll get a pre-roll ad.
Apparently devs haven't been using their devices for much video playback. Most of the information on this page is a good six months out of date. VEVO and YouTube work just fine through the browser, and they have already devised a scheme to feed unskippable ads to iOS devices.
The industry is way ahead of the concerns on this page.