Apple Inc. (AAPL): iOS 7 May Integrate These 2 Social Sharing Apps

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is reportedly working on its new operating system upgrade called iOS 7, though no one has officially announced that it is coming. While  that doesn’t stop the rumor mill from turning by any stretch, we just felt compelled to put that on the record. Anyway, while the rumor mill is churning, a new round of chatter is cropping up surrounding the apps that  are not native Apple applications but could well be deeply embedded into the new OS as if they were native to the Apple ecosystem.

And it seems to be pretty clear that one such addition would be a shot across the bow at Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and an endorsement of the efforts of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) to get more involved in Apple. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) did take some major steps into social integration a couple of years ago when it integrated Twitter and at least considered Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) at one point – though that was scrapped during development of iOS 4 but instituted last year with iOS 6 – it seems that Cupertino is willing to go even deeper into integrating social and trying to go deeper into excluding Google.

The latest rumor about iOS 7 includes the integration of sharing apps Flickr (photos) and Vimeo (video) to go alongside Twitter and Facebook. Though we’re not sure where those two will fit on the home screen. However, whatever space these two will fill will mean less space for Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and YouTube. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has made no bones in the last year about not integrating Google apps into iOS, and Vimeo is seen to be a counter to YouTube, which is one of the most popular iOS apps.

Reports are that the integration of Vimeo and Flickr will be so deep that users can log into any or all available social network from the iOS settings screen, which means that users can be logged in all the time and be able to share their thoughts (Facebook/Twitter), photos (Flickr) and video (Vimeo) whenever the use their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

And integrating Flickr is a nice bonus for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), which has been in talks with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) about having a much deeper presence on iOS than it has had so far – serving as the engine behind the Weather and Stocks native apps on iOS – and Flickr would fit that bill, though reportedly it wasn’t necessarily in discussions to begin with.

But what do you think? Do these additions to iOS make social sharing more attractive  on an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) device? Does this deep social integration make a difference to you in your smartphone decision-making? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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