As fans gear up to witness the impending launching of new iDevices this fall (or summer as rumored), Apple it seemingly has several aces up its sleeve. This time round, Apple looks set to increase the social quotient of users when it launches iOS 7 as the company is reportedly looking to integrate Flickr and Vimeo apps in the OS.
According to a 9to5Mac report "In the upcoming overhaul of its iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch operating system, iOS 7, Apple plans to include an increased presence of third-party social networks, including the Yahoo-owned photo sharing service Flickr and Vimeo, according to a person familiar with the software."
Both Flickr and Vimeo will become built-in apps in iOS7 and will let users share content that is saved on their iDevices to these two websites. The inclusion of more third-party apps will negate the need for an iOS user to access Safari.
However, this is not the first time Apple is looking to integrate apps in its OS. In 2012, Apple added Facebook integration to iOS 6 and in 2011, it struck a deal to integrate Twitter in iOS 5.
The decision to integrate Flickr and Vimeo in the impending iOS 7 will be welcomed by iPhone and iPad owners. Flickr recently got a makeover and the subscribers of the photo sharing service are quite pleased with the resultant changes.
However, at this juncture everything is based on speculation and what has been gleaned from rumors as Apple is yet to confirm the information. A strong possibility exists that these two apps are just in the testing phase for iOS 7 by developers. Moreover, in the past, Apple has yanked third-party apps prior to launch (remember the Facebook iOS 4 fiasco in 2012?) and the tech giant may not take the third-party route with iOS 7 for all we know.
iOS 7 is anticipated to launch at the Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) in June this year and will be the pre-cursor to the iPhone 5S, iPad mini 2 and iPad 5 launches.
