And, a merciful death at that. One of the coolest things about the original iPhone was the YouTube app. Why? Because, despite Adobe’s best (and worst efforts), Flash Mobile just wouldn’t play and, back in 2007, pretty much everything on YouTube was presented in Flash and the iPhone delivered Leave Brittany Alone when no one else could.
Fast forward five years (!!!) and Flash Mobile is dead, dead, dead, replaced by browser friendly HTML5 + H264 video.
That said, among a host of others, All Things D reports that the just released iOS 6 beta 4 does not include Google’s YouTube app.
For Apple’s part, public relations representative Trudy Miller says, “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 the need to know world of Apple PR, and we don’t need to know, left unsaid is whether Apple actually cares or tried to renew the license.
An equally squishy statement has been issued by an unnamed YouTube PR flack — “We are working with Apple to make sure we have the best possible YouTube experience for iOS users.”
Does YouTube care if the world’s best selling smartphone, tablet and media player (iPod touch) product lines ship with a dedicated app or not? They aren’t saying.
Then again, given that pretty much everyone schlepping mobile video offers it in the iOS-friendly HTML5 format, who really cares if the YouTube goes away? Frankly, this user is sick of getting kicked out of Safari and into the YouTube app “just because.”
A lot of people are trying to make the omission of the YouTube app in iOS 6 into just the latest chapter in the ongoing and bitter Google v. Apple war for dominance, but that seems way, way overblown — it’s just time that it died…
What’s your take?