Apple Inc’s new version of its iPhone and iPad software will not include a pre-loaded app for Google Inc’s popular video Web site, YouTube, Apple said on Monday.
It was the latest sign of the growing rivalry between the technology companies that once were closely aligned, but are now vying for supremacy in the fast-growing mobile computing market.
Earlier this year, Apple said it would dump Google’s mapping software from its smartphone devices.
Google, the world’s No. 1 Web search engine, is also the maker of the most popular smartphone software with its Android operating system.
In May, Google sealed the US$12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, setting the stage for Google to more tightly integrate its smartphone software and hardware and mount a more direct challenge to Apple’s iPhone.
Apple said in a statement on Monday that its license to include the YouTube app in the iOS operating system “has ended.” Apple said that “customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the app store.”
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the company’s YouTube license included any financial terms, or on whether Apple planned to replace YouTube with another pre-installed online video app from a different company.
Google said in a statement that it was working with Apple to ensure that it has “the best possible YouTube experience for iOS users.”
YouTube had been among a handful of apps that came pre-loaded onto the screens of Apple’s mobile devices since the original iPhone was introduced in 2007.
Analysts said Google was unlikely to take much of a financial hit from the move, though it could complicate the company’s efforts to expand online services to its growing ranks of mobile users.
“It’s a risk to Google’s overall mobile approach and strategy, in that their services are not going to be as easy to find as they used to be,” ThinkEquity analyst Ronald Josey said. “They need to be everywhere that users are.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day