“The new version of iOS, the software that runs Apple’s iPhones and iPads, may be more important for what was taken away than for any of the things added,” Rich Jaroslovsky writes for Bloomberg.
“Gone from iOS 6 are two formerly built-in Google apps that were integral to previous versions of the operating system: Google Maps and YouTube. (The latter, at least, can be reinstalled from the App Store.),” Jaroslovsky writes. “Google’s search capability is still there, but Apple’s improvements to Siri, its voice-based personal assistant, provide an alternative way of finding more and more information. And a new Apple app called Passbook represents a toe in the water of mobile payments, something Google has aggressively been pursuing with its Google Wallet software.”
Jaroslovsky writes, “It isn’t that far- fetched to imagine a day when even core search functions are handled by some Apple-designed replacement. But if the company wants to retain its reputation for putting the user experience ahead of all else, it had better be sure that anything it introduces is better than whatever it’s replacing.”
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