SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — YouTube is being reprogrammed for
the iPhone and iPad amid the latest fallout from the growing hostility
between Google and Apple.
The changes are being made because
Google Inc. and Apple Inc. didn’t renew a five-year licensing agreement
that established YouTube’s video service as one of the built-in
applications in the operating system that runs the iPhone and iPad.
YouTube
is being bumped from the menu of pre-installed apps on the next version
of Apple’s mobile operating system, or iOS, which could be released as
early as Wednesday when the latest iPhone is expected to be unveiled.
Google
is making a pre-emptive strike on Tuesday with the release of a
revamped YouTube application. The app is designed to make it as easy as
possible for the tens of millions of iPhone and iPad owners to continue
watching clips from the world’s most popular video site.
The new
YouTube app will create more moneymaking opportunities for Google and
video producers because it allows advertising to be shown with the
clips. That’s something Apple hasn’t allowed on the pre-installed
YouTube app. The ban on ads prevented many music videos and other widely
watched clips from being shown in the iOS app because some copyright
owners don’t allow their content to be shown if there is no way for them
to be paid.
Removing the advertising limitations will mean users
of the new iOS app can watch YouTube videos that already have been
available on smartphones and tablet computers running on Google’s
Android software said, Francisco Varela, YouTube’s global director of
platform partnerships.
"We are offering a better user experience
to iPhone users," Varela said of the new YouTube app. "We will now have
content parity on all our mobile platforms."
Apple had no comment on Google’s claims.
The
new YouTube app is tailored for the iPhone, although it will work on
the iPad, too. A retooled app specifically tailored for the iPad is
supposed to be released in the next few months.
As has always been
the case, YouTube’s videos also can be watched through Web browsers
that work on iOS, including Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome.
YouTube
could still end up losing some of its audience on the iPhone, iPad and
iPod Touch because device owners will have to go to Apple’s App Store to
download the free program. YouTube says mobile viewers collectively
watch more than 1 billion clips per day.
Many of those YouTube
viewers watch on Android devices that have become Apple’s bane. Before
he died 11 months ago, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs told his biographer
Walter Isaacson that he viewed Android as a "stolen product" and vowed
to get even with Google and its partners for ripping off his company’s
ideas.
The vendetta has spurred a series of lawsuits against
Android device makers, including a case that culminated last month when a
jury awarded Apple more than $1 billion in damages after concluding
Samsung Electronics violated iPhone patents.
Apple has also lashed
out by removing Google’s digital maps as the automatic navigation
system on its family of mobile devices. That change will also occur when
the next version of iOS comes out. The upgrade will feature Apple’s own
mobile mapping system.
That switch could hurt Google because maps are a key piece of the company’s plans to
sell more ads to local merchants.
Google
wanted to gain more control over how YouTube worked on Apple’s
products, a goal that led to a decision to give up YouTube’s prized
status as a built-in app despite the potential loss in traffic. The
licensing agreement allowed Apple to design the YouTube app for the iOS.
"They
have been a great partner," Varela said of Apple. "Together, we have
absolutely changed the mobile ecosystem. This is just the next evolution
in this partnership. We are the only people that can build the best
YouTube app."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.