Apple said that Google YouTube will not be included in the next version of its iOS, the software used in the iPhone and iPad, the latest evidence of escalating competition between the two companies.
“Our licence to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended,” said Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Apple. “Customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser, and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.”
Apple chief executive Tim Cook, who took over from late co-founder Steve Jobs last August, has spearheaded the unveiling of new services – such as in-house mapping, beefed-up Siri software, address-bar search on its Safari browser – to help keep at bay Google and its Android mobile platform.