Microsoft explains how Google is making it impossible to make a good Windows Phone YouTube app

On their Technet site David Howard, Microsoft Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, explained the story behind the blockage of Microsoft’s new YouTube app.

Howard revealed that Google demanded Microsoft write the app in HTM5, which in the end proved impossible, with Microsoft writing:

“…we dedicated significant engineering resources to examine the possibility. At the end of the day, experts from both companies recognized that building a YouTube app based on HTML5 would be technically difficult and time consuming, which is why we assume YouTube has not yet made the conversion for its iPhone and Android apps.”

Microsoft notes that neither the official iOS or Android apps were coded in HTML5, and we wonders if it is even possible to deliver a good experience using the technology. Facebook certainly found HTML5 was a waste of their development time in the end.

Microsoft also notes that they addressed all Google’s other issues, and this still resulted in Google blocking the app.

Microsoft concludes:

We think it’s clear that Google just doesn’t want Windows Phone users to have the same experience as Android and Apple users, and that their objections are nothing other than excuses. Nonetheless, we are committed to giving our users the experience they deserve, and are happy to work with Google to solve any legitimate concerns they may have. In the meantime, we once again request that Google stop blocking our YouTube app.

It is clear the battle between Microsoft and Google is set to continue for some time, but I think Microsoft’s end game- getting a court to force Google to open up access to their services on anti-trust grounds, still appears to be approaching very rapidly. We suggest Google spends some more time thinking about the bigger picture before acting next time.

Read the full post at Technet here.