As massive endorsers of Apple, at MakoEducation we use  iOS devices to stream video content on a daily basis, so  it came as something of a shock to find out that the official YouTube app will be deleted from the next update of the iOS software (iOS 6) and indeed from the next iPhone (the alleged iPhone 5).

Why is this such a shock? Well, as you probably know, YouTube is the worlds #1 source of video content, and it shows no signs of stopping. The native YouTube app has been with the iPhone straight out of the box since day 1 and is many people’s ‘go to’ app for their daily news, entertainment and general video browsing. This is clearly a bold statement of intent from Apple to further distance itself from the online giant that is Google.

Check out more details on Google's record breaking purchase of YouTube here

Should you be concerned? Probably not. With the major advancements and functionality in app development, the native YouTube app has felt like it has been left to gather dust in recent times and is what many people are beginning to consider to be “out of date” and rather “clumsy”. As web content is starting to become more and more HTML5 savvy in the wake of Flash’s demise (mostly thanks to Apple’s iPhone and iPad), and with mobile devices driving more and more web traffic, a lot of sites are becoming device and browser aware, thus enabling mobile surfers to access their content without the need for an app to be downloaded locally to the device. Is this the end of apps then? No. There’s room in the world for both, as both methods have their pros and cons.

What’s going to happen moving forward? Well, you can probably expect Google (and possibly third parties) to develop new YouTube apps that will be downloadable from the app store in the not to distant future. Failing that, you will continue to see advancements in the mobile version of the YouTube website when you visit it via your mobile browser. Whatever the outcome it’s another curve ball from Apple, but they seem to know what they are doing so we’ll just have to trust them.

The iOS6 update is currently in beta testing and is rumoured to be released in conjunction with the iPhone 5 towards the end of 2012.