“With the shift to mobile, there are valid reasons for tech companies to stray from their usual turf,” Richard Waters reports for The Financial Times. “Smartphone users want the core functions of their devices to be integrated and easy to use. Keeping these in-house makes it possible for a company like Apple to keep control of the overall experience of its products. It’s a similar approach to that of carmakers: the seats, headlights and brakes are not optional extras, but built-in features.”

“Yet commercial ambition and competitive jealousies are also at work. Ending the distribution of Google Maps and YouTube as preloaded apps on the iPhone is a way for Apple to take a bite out of a rival’s business,” Waters writes. “Keeping access to a user’s personal data is even more important: digital maps, for instance, are a place where users reveal both their location and intent, as they search for local services.”

Waters writes, “Whether or not to get sucked into the content scramble is now one of the biggest questions facing Apple.”

Read more in the full article here.