Steve Jobs was “lying to us when it comes to FaceTime,” Zach Holman blogs.
“And we’re going to take it all the way. We’re going to the standards bodies, starting tomorrow, and we’re going to make FaceTime an open industry standard.” – Steve Jobs, 2010 WWDC Keynote
“Steve went on stage and announced this to the world,” Holman writes. “Rumor is he also simultaneously announced it to the majority of the FaceTime team, who until that moment hadn’t yet been informed that their work was going to be standardized.”
“There’s certainly a possibility that FaceTime may still be ratified as an open standard. Maybe Steve just misspoke when he gave concrete dates and steps to open up the FaceTime protocol. Maybe it happens the day after I publish this blog post,” Holman writes. “But regardless of the reason, we are stuck here more than a year later, with FaceTime siloed strictly to Apple devices and (to my knowledge) zero standards bodies reviewing a proposed FaceTime protocol spec.”
Holman writes, “If FaceTime were open, we’d certainly see people working on integrating it. Within a day of Jobs’ announcement, Skype had said that they were interested in the technology available through FaceTime. I’d wager good money that some of the Android-based phones would add FaceTime as an option. And the indie market would have a blast…”
Read more in the full article here.
It seems t o me that standards boards take their own sweet time deciding on a ‘standard’ An, as far as Ive seen, they don’t communicate well, even when dealing with communication ‘standards’. It will happen when it happens.
Agree that standards move at their own, often slow, pace.
However, if some standards body somewhere were working on this, we’d have heard about it? Secrets? In this day in age? Not likely; consider all the other Apple rumors we see.
I used FaceTime for the very first time this summer despite having had it for a long time. I didn’t know anyone else who had it, or I was never in wireless range when I could use it. My workplace, for example, won’t allow phones on their network, so my days are spent in a “no FaceTime” zone. Wish the networks would allow it over the air.
Ok let’s get real. Apple already is dealing with so many problems. Their products are selling faster that they can be made, they have to deal with the fake apple stores in china, then some Other problems that might be going on needs attention.
So just stop you immature complaing and just be happy with what they have done.
Stop making dumb asumptions. So just because it’s taking longer than you expected it automatically means they lied?
Grow up.
Naw. They have gobs of people working there so don’t come up with that lame excuse. If it was Mister Softy you’d be all over it. So they haven’t shared Face Time. So what? I use it but not many people do currently. I think it’s great but it will be a while before it becomes popular. It will become mainstream as more Apple devices are sold. Besides, Face Time isn’t the only game in town. Google and others have been at it before AAPL. But if it’s going to become popular it will be Apple who makes it happen. Apple doesn’t share or play well with others. Even excuse making fanboys should realize that. Right fanboys?
Apple used to play very well with others and share a whole lot, which resulted in them getting brutally and repeatedly stabbed in the back for most of their existence.
They’ve learned, the hardest way, to be extremely cautious with anything they share. Facetime won’t be released as an open standard until Apple has covered every angle and is absolutely sure it can’t be used against them(in particular, a certain Mister Softy just loves to corrupt open standards and use them to attack their own creators with).
On top of that, standards bodies can move slower than a glacier. OpenGL 1.0 was released in 1992. OpenGL 1.1 was released in 1997.
Saying “Steve Jobs lied!” because it’s not an open standard yet in 2011 when it was announced in 2010 is completely stupid.
I think Steve wants to keep it exclusive to the iOS and Mac platform because he wants to keep the Android and Windows riff raff from FaceTime. Besides they tout it on iPad and iPhone advertisements as if it is something to aspire to when you buy an Apple product.
Personally I’ve tried using it with friends and family but since I’m the only Mac owning nut in my family it’s quite lost on them. This is changing though as one by one they are falling under the spell of Apple but it’s tentative steps for now – an iPod touch here, a nano there. I’ve converted my brother in law to the MBA and I’ll buy my nephew an iMac for his birthday but I’m still the lone holdout. So FaceTime is kinda lost on them.
Agreed
I agree completely. Can never know what is about to happen, but it seems FT is a proprietary, in house only, standard.
Too bad, because ultimately it hurts Apple. FT will be relegated to the Apple only world and become irrelevant as alternative solutions become available.
Actually, Face Time will be what all your friends and family will use and you will have to buy an Apple product or look like a total asshole.
+2
Won’t work in your case.
Despite what the jackhole would have you believe, Jobs spoke a little too deliberately about FT being peddled as a standard for talks about it not to happening on some level.
As far as alternate solutions, Open Office and Ubuntu are alternate solutions. I fail to see your point.
Don’t know about Apple business strategy of FaceTime. Would like to see it widespread used.
To be fair, FaceTime is not protocol per se, but protocol of use of long time established open/industry standardized protocols.
Just another jackass that gets to put “Steve Jobs is a liar” in print to drum up his otherwise pathetic blog presence. “As far as you know” is about as far as I could throw you, probably not even that far.
non Mac people wouldn’t figure out how to use Face Time anyway. A woman I know bought an iPad and gave it away because she couldn’t fugure out how to touch the screen. This is not a joke!
This, to me is one of the problems with Apple becoming too popular. Some people (maybe most) really should be suffering with a PC, and not using a Mac.
They’re just not gonna’ be able to “get” it.
Didn’t hear Steve say when ….. And ….. Two years is not unreasonable, So ……. So ……
So …… Give it a little more time, DUMMIE CRYBABY …….
Since you are such a BIG CRYBABY make it five years …..
Oh he says, I would take a bullet to protect my Mac ….. What a STUPID thing to say …….
This guy is an IDIOT …….
I am just fuming after reading the whole blog ……. Ignore the POS ……
Well, because Steve did say it would be “an open industry standard,” I wouldn’t mind an update from Apple (just a press release, it doesn’t have to be a speech from Steve) as to what the states is. Did Apple submit everything needed to the standards board? Is it out of Apple’s hands now?
Props to MDN for putting this up. Apple doesn’t have to do everything proprietary… it just doesn’t see the benefit to opening this up yet… which is sad.
They do this to sell ipads, iphones, and macs, etc. All companies think in terms of dollars and cents, yes, even Google.
i love FT. But, I’m fortunate because all my family members have some sort of Apple product. With the exception of my grandma and my mother-in-law (who has a 3GS), we all use it all the time! Especially to my sister in Paraguay. I could care less if it is ever on Android. And I plan on never owning a PC, so I could care less about it being on there too.
Face time rules!
Yeah, Skype was interested then they got bought by Microsoft. What do you think is going to happen with Skype now? Microsofting of it, that’s what. MS likes their own “standards” on things. Hell, they can’t even make their own software work with their own software.
Well, the article makes a valid point. Let’s look at history for guidance. Apple created FireWire. They submitted it to the standards body, and it was eventually adopted as IEEE.1394. The process of waiting for the adoption of the standard did NOT prevent Apple from sharing the specification with others, which resulted in having many FireWire-enabled devices on the market by the time IEEE.1394 was officially ratified.
If what Steve said last year was true, nothing prevented Apple from sharing FaceTime specification over the past year (while we’re all supposedly waiting for some unknown standards body to ratify it). In other words, if Apple really means what Steve said a year ago, we would have had third-party Face Time offerings long ago.
It seems to me, Steve (or Apple’s Face Time team) have changed their minds about opening this up. Perhaps they realized that the first to implement it would have been Google in Android (FroYo would have likely had it long ago), which would take away a significant differentiating point between two operating systems. Perhaps they just didn’t want to keep piling onto the variety of video-chat solutions out there (what with the king of the hill, Skype, then AIM/iChat, then Win Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ooVoo, plus myriad smaller players with same functionality).
Whatever was the reason, it seems they definitely decided to back out of this idea. Too bad; Face Time had promise…
Apple creates FaceTime and shares it with the standards body. While they wait for the specification to be ratified, they share it with other companies. These other companies make their own FaceTime capable devices.
And then the standards body says the specification has to be changed before they can ratify it.
Can you say “oh shit”?
What may be preventing Apple from sharing the spec over the past year is the realization that what they did with Firewire was a stupid and dangerous gamble they shouldn’t repeat.
You’re right, they seem to have changed their minds. I think it would be better for Apple to move forward with opening FaceTime than to lose out to Skype. Isn’t FaceTime supposed to be built on open standards anyways?
Apple first needs to standardize FaceTime across its own product line and merge iChat and FaceTime on old and new Macs — as well as have it on iOS devices. I would assume the Lion transition is a big part if that plan…so, be patient.
Don’t care if Steve lied its their invention and for all i care apple can do what ever they want with their inventions. if apple changed its mind about making it open so be it. go invent your own. Why should they make it open if one of the reason people buy iPads is because of FaceTime. Its their handwork and they came up with it and they can do what ever they want with it people are allowed to change their minds especially when billions of dollars are involved. Don’t make it open apple let everyone come up with their own invention they have been stealing so much from apple anyway. with out apple there wouldn’t have been iPhone style smart phones and instead of saying thank you that apple did all the hard work and they just copied they have such big mouths about how superior they clones are. go jump in a lake. you not having this one amigo go spend some of your cheap earned dollars to invent something for goodness sake.
He publicly promised it, didn’t deliver a year later, and hasn’t explained why.
Excuse us for holding him to his words.
How many of you bitching are developers? Cause I’ve seen 3 aps NOT FROM APPLE that are utilizing the FaceTime API… It’s also not complete.
It’s not like Darwin Streaming Server was…
Granted, these developers generate millions of revenue, but to say he lied is BS.
Shit, email steve.. but don’t act like a toddler, oops he already did..
Knob..
It’s nice, but not competitive enough.
It’s been a year since Steve Jobs said FaceTime would be an open standard.
If Apple really is pursuing this goal, their should be at least one formal draft by now, and at least one standards body in the process of reviewing it.
Knowing Apple, I’d think there probably is a reasonable explanation for why this haven’t happened yet.
There isn’t enough data to draw a conclusion about what happened, but it’s clearly not progressing as promised, and I think Apple owes an explanation.
Remember when ‘cult of mac’ was just a pejorative for mac loyal, or vendor satisfied? The hair on the back of my bald head BRISTLES when I read statements like, “Well Steve said…, “Mr. Jobs you have done it again!”, or “Apple has been real busy dealing with…”. Welcome to Cult of Mac 2.0.
DARE I SAY CREEPY? Are you on his Christmas card list or did you buy a black turtleneck because **this year** you will get the invite?
Apple is a company that makes a product priced at a premium you enthusiastically support. There products and customer service are far from perfect as can be demonstrated by a couple nasty bugs i have encountered in Lion. I suspect 20+ years on the platform makes for a power user more likely to encounter bugs but the lack of any visible objectivity in Cult 2.0 users only dooms us all to inferior or iron-fisted-locked-down products that WE, the users OWN.
I know your buddy Steve will say “compatibility”, “Streamlining”, or other catch phrases like “security”. Apple is great with marketing lingo that has a ‘read between the lines’ message. Palm on your network? No problem – Security update”. OWNERS of iphones tinkering with their own HW – “Security and compatibility update” that purely coincidentally bricked early iphones. Sure, one can recite the EULA and declare Apple in the clear but if this company loved you that much, would it ever brick its customers, subject them to constant updates to win a pissing contest, or one of my peeves in Lion, fail to update airport sharing beyond WEP security? Apple cites compatibility. Since when has Apple ever had a problem dumping old tech. Could it be the profitable and competing AEBS?