Introducing a new YouTube app for your iPhone and iPod touch
For all you diehard YouTube fans out there who can't get enough YouTube on your mobile, we've got some great news: starting today, you can download the official YouTube app for iPhone and iPod touch from the App Store …
Context & Ripple Effects
The official iPhone app closes a five-year loop: YouTube has been on the device since Apple put YouTube video on the original iPhone in 2007, but until now that access ran through Apple's built-in integration rather than YouTube's own client. The move also extends an August console push — a feature overhaul on Xbox and a dedicated PlayStation 3 app that added smartphone remote control of playback — onto the platform where YouTube's audience is largest.
The pickup was unusually broad for an app launch, with hands-ons from The Verge to TUAW, and The Next Web flagged the sharpest angle: YouTube links on iOS now open in Google's own app, which it called huge for Google's ad dollars. A rumored expansion of YouTube's August ad overhaul to Apple platforms would fit the same pattern.
First-order effects
- iPhone and iPod touch users get a YouTube client Google controls end to end, and YouTube links tapped in iOS open inside that app instead of a system viewer.
- Google gains direct ad inventory on Apple hardware, no longer dependent on whatever placement Apple's built-in integration allowed.
Second-order effects
- Apple cedes default placement of one of the most-used services on its devices, weakening the leverage that came from bundling top apps into iOS itself.
- If the rumored ad-overhaul expansion reaches Apple platforms, advertisers get one consistent YouTube ad format across consoles and iOS rather than per-platform treatments.
Third-order effects
- The pattern across Xbox, PlayStation 3, and now iPhone points to video services decoupling from operating-system defaults entirely, owning the client, the data, and the monetization on every screen.
- Platform owners' bundled apps become less of a moat as the biggest content providers ship their own clients, shifting bargaining power toward whoever holds the audience relationship.
The trend: Major video platforms are replacing operating-system defaults with their own cross-device apps, reclaiming control of the viewing experience and the ad inventory that comes with it.