Following an observation earlier this week by AppAdvice that Apple had removed podcasts from the iTunes app in iOS 6, it now appears that there’s a good reason for that: Apple is planning to release a new entirely separate podcast app when iOS 6 debuts this fall.
AllThingsD reports:
People familiar with Apple’s plans tell me that when its new iOS 6 software becomes widely available this fall, podcasts will have their own app, where users will be able to discover, download and play them on mobile devices. Users who access iTunes via laptop and desktop machines will still find them in that version of iTunes, though.
It wouldn’t be the first time Apple has made such a move – iTunes U got a similar treatment in January. The Audiobooks section is also missing from iTunes in iOS 6. It’s interesting that Apple seems to be breaking iTunes up into separate pieces – that could ultimately mean that Apple may be planning to break up iTunes on the desktop in a similar way, although that may be a bit of a stretch.
Further, 9to5Mac claims that Apple is also working on new technology to product podcasts, which may be included in the new podcast app. So far, Apple has (unsurprisingly) declined to comment – but frankly, this makes a lot of sense.