News that YouTube will be coming to the iPhone when it launches on the 29th of this month, should come as no surprise. Back when the device was first announced, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, suggested that the iPhone wouldn’t need to support Flash video in order to access YouTube. Instead, Jobs explained, all Apple had to do was persuade the video sharing site to become a partner and re-encode its back catalog into the company’s preferred h.264 video format. Which is exactly what happened with regards to the AppleTV — and now the iPhone.

Apple claims that by using h.264, the iPhone’s version of YouTube should be of higher video quality than other mobile versions of YouTube, and help preserve the devices battery life. And like with the version optimized for AppleTV, the roll out will happen in stages.

Over 10,000 videos will be available on June 29, and YouTube will be adding more each week until their full catalog of videos is available in the H.264 format this fall.

Apple also announced that the promised version of YouTube for the AppleTV is now available as an automatic software update.

“iPhone delivers the best YouTube mobile experience by far,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Now users can enjoy YouTube wherever they are—on their iPhone, on their Mac or on a widescreen TV in their living room with Apple TV.”