The long-running cold war between Microsoft and Google has just turned hot. In response to Google’s decision to once again block Microsoft’s Windows Phone YouTube app, Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard accused Google of intentionally trying to keep YouTube off of Windows Phone to damage Windows Phone users’ experience with the platform. At issue is that Google has asked Microsoft to write a YouTube app based on HTML5, which Howard said is “technically difficult and time-consuming” to use as a code for the app and which Google isn’t even using for its own iOS and Android YouTube apps.
“It seems to us that Google’s reasons for blocking our app are manufactured so that we can’t give our users the same experience Android and iPhone users are getting,” wrote Howard. “The roadblocks Google has set up are impossible to overcome, and they know it.”
Despite the fact that he just accused Google of acting in bad faith to essentially sabotage Windows Phone, Howard reiterated at the end of his post that his company is still “happy to work with Google to solve any legitimate concerns they may have.”
