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With iOS 6, Apple kicks out YouTube app

Not long after announcing it would replace the Google Maps app with iOS Maps, Apple pulls another Google app from iOS 6: YouTube. 

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Reuters
Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iOS Software at Apple, shows off the new iOS Maps function on iOS 6. Apple today confirmed that iOS 6 would not include the familiar YouTube app.
  • By Matthew Shaer

Apple's iOS 6 mobile operating system will boast more Siri, more FaceTime – and less YouTube. 

As PC World notes today, a new beta release of the forthcoming OS omits the familiar old YouTube app, which has been standard on iPhones and iPads from the beginning. In a statement to The Verge, Apple said the change was logistical. "Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended," an Apple rep said. "Customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store." 

But in the tech world, the move has widely been viewed as proof of an intensifying spat between Google and Apple. Horizons readers will remember that earlier this year, Apple announced Google's Maps application – like the YouTube app, standard on Apple iPhones since 2007 – would be replaced with an in-house product dubbed iOS Maps. (In a cool twist, iOS Maps will include 3D topography, a feature that Google is also working into its mobile maps.) 

It's worth noting, of course, that YouTube isn't exactly banned from iOS 6. Users will still be able to access it via the Web browser or a range of third-party apps, such as TubeBox. So will anyone miss the YouTube app? Probably not, writes Sascha Segan of PC World, who calls the original YouTube app "undeletable clutter."

His rationale: People who really want a YouTube app on their desktop will find a better (read: third-party) app. Meanwhile, Segan continues, "people who don't like YouTube won't have it on their device. Consumers win. I'm hoping Apple will slim even further down on the bloatware. There is absolutely no reason for the weather and stock preloads, given the huge number of superior weather and stock apps in the App Store." 

For more on how technology intersects daily life, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.

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