Windows Phone doesn’t have the ‘reach’ for Google to build a YouTube app, says Android chief

Google didn’t build its own YouTube app for Windows Phone because the platform doesn’t have “a critical mass of users,” Android chief Sundar Pichai said today at the D11 conference. “It’s simply a function of reach,” he said, before recommending that Windows Phone users try the mobile web version of YouTube. “YouTube has a great HTML5 experience,” he said.

Pichai’s comments come in the wake of a public spat with Microsoft over YouTube on Windows Phone. Microsoft built its own version of the app, but it did not include ads, leading Google to demand that the company remove it from its app store. Last week Microsoft updated the app to address Google’s concerns, and the companies eventually said they would work together on a new version of YouTube for Windows Phone.