4 ms·

FaceTime and Why Apple’s Massive Integration Advantage is Just Beginning

19 points by andrewpbrett 16y ago

byoung2 16y ago
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 16y ago
  FaceTime is an open protocol: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/apples_biggest_news_video_calling_as_open_standard.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/apples_biggest_news_vid... and http://blog.imtc.org/index.php/2010/06/09/the-technology-behind-apples-facetime-standards/ http://blog.imtc.org/index.php/2010/06/09/the-technology-beh...
  - byoung2 16y ago
    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 16y ago
      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 16y ago
        Fring allows video calls with skype who's users surely will outnumber those of the iphone.
        mbateman 16y ago
        Skype has around 50 million active users. 5-10 million iPhones sell per quarter. Shouldn't take long to catch up.
        ANINDIAN 16y ago
        YUP the same way more people use BBM for IM than Google Chat. (Oh they dont!!) And there are more Black berries than IPhones
- sirn 16y ago
  But there's one big difference: you can never assume every EVO has Qik or Fring. And you needed separate account for it. FaceTime with its full integration with the hardware requires none of that. Being able to "oh, you have iPhone 4? Let's FaceTime." is big. (Even though the answer is "I'm not on WiFi.")
  - byoung2 16y ago
    you can never assume every EVO has Qik or Fring My EVO came with Qik installed, but I did have to install Fring. I'd be willing to bet that in the near future, Android will have a standard video chat app built in, and likely running on top of gTalk
    - riffic 16y ago
      that would be the jingle protocol - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_(protocol) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_(protocol)
ANINDIAN 16y ago
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.
pwim 16y ago
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.

19 points by andrewpbrett 16y ago

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 16y ago
FaceTime is an open protocol: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/apples_biggest_news_video_calling_as_open_standard.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/apples_biggest_news_vid... and http://blog.imtc.org/index.php/2010/06/09/the-technology-behind-apples-facetime-standards/ http://blog.imtc.org/index.php/2010/06/09/the-technology-beh...
- byoung2 16y ago
  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 16y ago
    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 16y ago
      Fring allows video calls with skype who's users surely will outnumber those of the iphone.
      - mbateman 16y ago
        Skype has around 50 million active users. 5-10 million iPhones sell per quarter. Shouldn't take long to catch up.
        ANINDIAN 16y ago
        YUP the same way more people use BBM for IM than Google Chat. (Oh they dont!!) And there are more Black berries than IPhones
sirn 16y ago
But there's one big difference: you can never assume every EVO has Qik or Fring. And you needed separate account for it. FaceTime with its full integration with the hardware requires none of that. Being able to "oh, you have iPhone 4? Let's FaceTime." is big. (Even though the answer is "I'm not on WiFi.")
- byoung2 16y ago
  you can never assume every EVO has Qik or Fring My EVO came with Qik installed, but I did have to install Fring. I'd be willing to bet that in the near future, Android will have a standard video chat app built in, and likely running on top of gTalk
  - riffic 16y ago
    that would be the jingle protocol - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_(protocol) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_(protocol)

ANINDIAN 16y ago

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.

pwim 16y ago

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.