Apple iPhone 5 launched yesterday and many described it as one of the most successful launch ever selling out in many locations, and at the same time, iOS 6 was also released to the public. However although there have been many improvements to iOS 6, two important apps were left out, Google Maps and Youtube.
Both of these apps were native to the iOS prior versions, but missing in this new one. Unfortunately, we have to say it was a mistake on Apple’s part to do this because even though they make great products and provide excellent services, sometimes Google makes even better ones and has better services.
Here’s our story, we upgraded our iPad 2 and it went off without a glitch, but that’s where the good news ends. We tried Apple’s Maps app to give it a fair chance to show we are not biased and it was not a good experience at all. Once you used Google’s Street View, Apple’s Flyover view seems so outdated. And based on the feedback from the Internet community it seems that this is one of the most common complaints as well.
Now onto Youtube, even though we were aware that Google has quickly made a Youtube app for the iPhone 5, it was missing for the iPad, another strike against Apple. We won’t kid anyone and tell you that we use our iPad 2 for real work, mostly watching Youtube videos, reading and playing simple games as the real work is done on a PC.
Without a native Youtube app, the iPad felt like it was missing something important. Again sadly to say due to the lack of Youtube our user experience has been greatly diminished. Because what made the iPad great was the combination of excellent apps whether they be from Google or other developers.
However, from a business point of view, we know that Apple has decided, in their wisdom, not to include these two apps because Apple was getting afraid that their businesses were overlapping too much with Google and they did not want to give Google any more leverage than necessary. After all, Google now sells tablets and smartphones as a result of its Motorola acquisition.
So while our verdict on iOS 6 is positive, but it could have been much better with the native Google Maps and Youtube built into the operating system. Because doing the alternative of watching Youtube through the browser is just too inconvenient and we don’t want to get lost with Apple Maps.
