Apple cans YouTube from iOS 6, next-gen mobile products

• Incoming Apple products will not ship with YouTube as a native app
• Users can still access the video sharing and streaming site via mobile browser

WOULD be buyers of the new iteration of Apple mobile products -- iPhones, iPads, and iPods -- take note: These devices will not come pre-installed with Google's YouTube native application as the tech giant has decided to leave the hugely popular application out of its next generation software update and product lines.
 
That said, users are still able to watch YouTube videos over the Apple range of products by linking to the service via the web browser, noted an AFP report.
 
“We are working with Apple to ensure we have the best possible YouTube experience for iOS users,” a YouTube spokesman was quoted as saying to the wire agency yesterday.
 
AFP also noted that the search giant is expected to design a feature-rich YouTube application for Apple’s online App Store as an alternative. Apple tailored a YouTube application for iOS under terms of a license that recently expired but was unclear why the company didn’t renew the license, AFP noted.
 
The change came as competition between Apple and YouTube’s parent, Google, intensified and relations between the two California-based companies grow ever colder, added AFP.
 
This marks the first time since the birth of the iPhone, iPad and iPods product line to not have the world's leading streaming video site's application on board. This comes on the back of the announcement that the Cupertino, California-based tech titan booted Google Maps from its gadgets preferring to go with its own customized mapping solution.
 
Analysts believe the move stems from the fact that Google has now become a credible builder of its own mobile operating system – in the form of Android – thereby challenging Apple's dominance in a burgeoning mobile market. 
 
Global annual mobile phone shipments will grow at a CAGR of 6.3% between 2011 and 2017, driven primarily by demand from emerging markets where connection growth will continue to fuel handset shipments, according to Ovum.
 
In its latest forecast in May, the analyst firm predicts that smartphones will outperform the entire mobile phone market, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.9% for the period 2011–17 to reach 1.7 billion units.
 
Additionally, Asia-Pacific will be the largest region in volume terms, shipping just over 200 million units by 2016. New shipments in developed markets, such as North America and Western Europe, will be almost entirely made up of smartphones, while feature phones will continue to play a small role in emerging markets in 2017.
 
The new iteration of Apple mobile products is slated to be announced next month as is the introduction of the much-awaited next generation iOS, its sixth version in the market.
 
Biz as usual for YouTube on iphone
 
Meanwhile, tech portal GigaOM verified that despite the lack of a specific YouTube application on the up-and-coming iOS 6, the YouTube website can still be accessed via the devices' mobile browser with most functionalities remaining the same.
 
Mobile editor, Kevin C. Tofel, noted in his post that in a test of his own iPhone 4S, beta 4 of iOS does remove the YouTube application.
 
"But I’ve also verified that it really doesn’t change anything. Links to YouTube videos open up YouTube’s mobile web app and play just fine. I can see my channel subscriptions in the web app as well as all of the videos I’ve marked to 'Watch Later.'
 
"Is the experience stellar? No, but it’s not terrible, either. And this gives Google an opportunity to make the YouTube experience better anyway."
 
Tofel said he believed that Google isn’t likely to gain more YouTube exposure by paying to include the app on future iOS devices. Google, he added, could do that on its own now, with more freedom, and the mobile web app will suffice until a native app arrives.
 
"If the year was 2007 — or if Apple had a comparable user-generated video service — I’d likely feel otherwise. That was when the iPhone was introduced with a mobile YouTube app and it helped propel YouTube from a desktop to a mobile phenomenon,” he explained.
 
“Fast forward to today and all the people who didn’t know about mobile YouTube five years ago likely do now."