Apple has taken yet another step to create a ‘Google-free iPhone’ by dropping the YouTube app in its latest version of iOS.
This is after Apple announced that they will be dropping Google Maps from its latest iOS 6 software, which will be released this autumn.
According to an article by The Guardian, they reported that Apple’s license to include the popular YouTube app in its iOS has ended and the app will no longer appear on the home screen in iOS 6.
The YouTube app will stay in iOS 5, but those who update their iPhones or iPads to the iOS 6 will have the app removed.
However, YouTube users will still be able to access the site through the Safari browser—until Google releases a new app in the App Store.
Although the changes may not seem ‘earth moving’, there are speculations that Apple will ‘oust its rival from its most lucrative iPhone stronghold’, Google search.
Currently, Google is the default search engine on the Safari browser on the iPhones and iPad—a ‘privilege’ that was reported to have cost Google $1 billion a year in shared advertising revenue.
The Guardian also reports that Apple has dropped Google in China, favoring the country’s native firm, Baidu—and they might decide to give Google’s prime spot to either Yahoo or Microsoft’s Bing search engine in the west.
News of any changes should come in as early as 12 September—the date that Apple is expected to unveil the long anticipated iPhone 5.
Is this the end of the Google and Apple partnership?—only time will tell.
[via ABC News and The Guardian]