

FaceTime and Why Apple’s Massive Integration Advantage is Just Beginning - andrewpbrett
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/03/facetime-and-why-apples-massive-integration-advantage-is-just-beginning/

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byoung2
_sorry, but mobile 4G is not ready for primetime, and I firmly believe Apple
won’t even include it on next year’s iPhone 5_

I'll partly agree with the first part of that statement, but does that mean
that HTC/Sprint should have left it out of the EVO? Certainly not. Sprint
invested a great deal in its WiMax infrastructure, and releasing a phone that
takes advantage of it now brings in much-needed revenue (the added $10/mo +
$29 optional hotspot fees), and it increases public awareness of 4G. The HTC
EVO is a walking PR machine/proof of concept for 4G, and it just put Verizon,
AT&T, and T-Mobile into catch-up mode. I think it was a brilliant move on
Sprint's part, and they'll enjoy the benefits for at least the next year or
so.

The reason Apple won't include 4G on next year's iPhone is that for better or
worse, they are still stuck with AT&T (exclusivity contract expiration aside,
there's no GSM alternative, and CDMA is out). AT&T can't even get 3G to run on
all cylinders without breaking the network and angering customers. To roll out
4G and charge customers more for it (following Sprint's lead), they would have
to offer users a much better experience. The other reason Apple will leave it
out is that they need to offer users a compelling reason to get the iPhone 6.

 _FaceTime makes video-calling on the Android-based Sprint HTC EVO look silly,
because the EVO awkwardly requires users to sign up and download a third-party
app, then launch it every time they want to talk. Normal people simply won’t
do this._

I whole-heartedly disagree with this. Facetime forces users to only call other
iPhone 4 users, and only over Wi-Fi. The HTC EVO might be less convenient in
that you have to use Fring or Qik, but these apps are available on multiple
platforms (Windows Mobile, Nokia, etc), widening the group of people you can
reach. Video chat also works over 3G/4G, which for me trumps iPhone's
"instant-on" convenience. Perfect use case was our company's 4th of July
BBQ...I was able to use my EVO at the park to video chat, while my coworkers
with the iPhone 4 missed out because there was no WiFi (unless they were to
connect to my EVO's hotspot).

~~~
joubert
FaceTime is an open protocol:
[http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/apples_biggest_news_vid...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/apples_biggest_news_video_calling_as_open_standard.php)

and

[http://blog.imtc.org/index.php/2010/06/09/the-technology-
beh...](http://blog.imtc.org/index.php/2010/06/09/the-technology-behind-
apples-facetime-standards/)

~~~
byoung2
_FaceTime is an open protocol_

It may be open, but that doesn't guarantee adoption...to date, only the iPhone
4 makes use of it, whereas Fring and Qik already operate on multiple
platforms. If Facetime does manage to catch on and other manufacturers adopt
it, then the iPhone loses that competitive advantage, since there will be
plenty of Android, Symbian, and Windows phones that use it. The other OSes
have the advantage of being able to use other standards as well (because Apple
will not allow an app that competes with Facetime in its app store).

~~~
philwelch
In the next, say, 3 months, will the number of Fring or Qik users be even
close to the number of iPhone 4 users?

~~~
nt
Fring allows video calls with skype who's users surely will outnumber those of
the iphone.

~~~
mbateman
Skype has around 50 million active users. 5-10 million iPhones sell per
quarter. Shouldn't take long to catch up.

~~~
pwim
Where are you getting that number for Skype from? In October, 2009, they had
521 million registered users, and 40 million registered users in the
preceeding 3 months: [http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/21/skype-hits-521-million-
user...](http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/21/skype-hits-521-million-users-
and-185-million-in-quarterly-revenue/) That would indicate to me they likely
have more than 50 million active users.

Additionally, when someone buys an iPhone, they are not going to use that
phone for the rest of their life. People who already have iPhones will buy new
models. Others will migrate from iPhone to other phones. So just based on the
number of phones sold, you can't tell when it will "catch up".

Furthermore, as Skype runs on the iPhone (over 3G as well now), iPhone users
can also be Skype users.

~~~
mbateman
I got it based on the number of active users, not registered users. Everyone
who has registered for Skype ever counts as a registered user. I got my
numbers here:

<http://aaytch.com/borderless>

You're right that you can't tell when the iPhone will catch up purely based on
those numbers. I'd say it's a smart bet, though, that it won't be long. We
know that Apple has already sold a few million iPhone 4s, and I'll bet that it
sells somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 million before the next iPhone comes
out.

You're also right that you can Skype on the iPhone. We don't yet know how good
Skype video chat will be on the iPhone, how it will compare to FaceTime, or
how many people will use it instead of FaceTime. We also don't know who else
(if anyone) will use the FaceTime protocol.

However, we do know that every iPhone 4 comes with FaceTime enabled, that it
is trivial to use, and that it is integrated in the phone and contacts at the
system level. All of this softens the significance of Skype's apparent head
start.

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pwim
Using video on the mobile seems awkward to me. I'll be interested in seeing
some stats about how much this feature is actually used.

------
ANINDIAN
I feel FaceTime is a step back. ITs like saying BBM (Black berry messenger) is
awesome because you dont need to sign in, yet anyone would agree that GTalk or
any decent Chat client trumps BBM. The whole purpose of creating an account is
to allow portability. Tieing Facetime with Phone number and restricting it
only on WiFi is a stupid.

