“The upcoming iPhone 2.0 software is just around the corner and we all may be surprised how Apple’s unified communication solution could merge mobile communication with VoIP, PCs, Macs, iPhones and even Apple TVs,” Christian Zibreg writes for TG Daily.
Zibreg writes, “We took a hard, long look at the information that is available right now from reports as well as patent filings to give you an outlook what Apple might be up to, why we are quite certain that VoIP and videoconferencing will be the iPhone’s new killer applications.”
Zibreg reports that Apple “will put a block on VoIP calls over the cellphone network, but not on calls made over Wi-Fi networks. So, if you’re near public Wi-Fi hot-spot or a Wi-Fi network at your home or office, you will be able to phone other people for free using VoIP software. With that in mind, many wonder: Will Apple roll out its own VoIP solution with the iPhone 2.0 software update?”
Zibreg writes, “Apple doesn’t even have to create VoIP software for the iPhone from scratch, it already has one: iChat… With iChat running on an iPhone you would be able to place voice or video calls through Wi-Fi network to other iPhone users or iChat users on a Mac, effectively bridging desktop and mobile worlds. If Apple brings iChat to Windows, which will happen sooner than later anyway, VoIP/video calls could extend to potentially millions and millions iChat users on PCs.”
More in the full article here.
@ Darkness
Totally. Speaking of Rollover, I’m on the $79 iPhone plan, and I think I currently have roughly 17 trillion rollover minutes. So yeah, I don’t think they’ll miss my overages. Considering that so many people use their iPhones for everything BUT calls, I think this might represent a lot of customers.
The best thing about VOIP for me will be the signal – at my house, the network is OK, but not great, and sometimes I have problems in certain places in my house.
No problems with the Airport Extreme signal, though.
@ qka
It might be flattening, if you stand in front of it too long!
CUPC for iPhone would get Apple into the enterprise market in a second. I hope Apple are talking to Cisco.
@Pedrag
The problem with AIM is exactly as you mentioned. Its not a good app. Also there’s a branding/marketing challenge. It’s easier to explain that iChat is everywhere, than to try to have the masses connect the dots with AIM.
Also there’s a problem overseas, outside of the U.S. most European people I deal with seem to be MSN focused. I would suspect that depending on AIM for a worldwide infrastructure would be less than desirable for SJ.
I think he will heavily market iChat for Windows, and then use it as mindshare leverage (iChat+iPhone/iPod touch) to sell more mobile devices.
…and iChat will be “everywhere” except on Nokia devices lol.
While I can see where you’re going with iChat for Windows, I just can’t see AOL being very happy (or even amused) with Apple developing a (free) application that does exactly what their own application does, on their own networks.
Then again, Steve Jobs was able to convince music labels to sell songs for $1 apiece, so nothing is impossible. He just might be able to coax AOL into giving up on that AIM (somewhat of a cash cow, with the extreme advertising everywhere), for a (much) greater market share in the IM space. If this does happen, though, it would be somewhat strange, having Apple’s software, on Windows, Mac and iPhone, using AOL’s proprietary instant messaging protocol (AIM). What exactly would be AOL’s benefit, providing back-end technology (ldap, authentication, negotiation, etc) for competitor’s front end software?
Apple’s decision early on to use AIM protocols for iChat was based on the fact that AIM was (at the time, and apparently still is) the most popular IM protocol (in the US, as well as in the world). By having people create their iChat accounts, he made sure they’ll be able to immediately communicate with all of their friends on AOL (practically half of the online US population at the time). AOL was quite receptive then; it is a question, though whether they would be that receptive to an Apple iChat client for Windows.
. . . I think a two way with your mom is bad enough, good sir.
@Predrag…I guess what you are saying that my erratic hotel connection problems is probably due to their ISP not having key ports open (mainly video as in many case audio will work).
The reason I said bandwidth was because in a few cases when I could not connect, a message came up on my screen and said that there was insufficient bandwidth.
I’ve seen this bandwidth message myself as well; usually, there was plenty of bandwidth to go around (you can always check at http://www.bandwidthplace.com). In most cases, it was due to closed ports, which many hotels tend to close on their routers.
For the International traveler, VoIP would be an incredibly valuable addition. I don’t own an iPhone, but if it supported VoIP, I’d definitely be in the market. I would save literally hundreds on calls overseas.
Why do that when you can let Skype do that job for you
@Predrag
You need to try and keep up with the rumors and speculation. Here’s why there could be a version of iChat coming to windows.
The current rumor is that iPhone 2 will have a 2nd front facing camera and will do video calls (ichat) and that these can be done iPhone to iPhone, iPhone to mac and iPhone to Apple TV and vice versa,
Think about this, if true windows using iPhone owners – which is most iPhone users, will also need to video chat from iPhone to PC and vice versa.
et voila, this is why there could be a pc version of iChat coming to the pc
My iChat was very hit and miss til I changed the port (iChat prefs/Accounts/Server Settings/Port – make changes offline) from 5190 to 443. It made all the difference.
To hari Seldon,
It seems like you haven’t read my previous posts. My point is, there already is an iChat for Windows and it is called AIM. As I had said, I’m not sure AOL will be happy if someone else (say, Apple) goes ahead and releases an instant messaging / videoconferencing client that does exactly as their own AIM does, plus a bit more (four-way videoconferencing).
On the other hand, There is that OpenAIM project, where AOL is offering free APIs for AIM to anyone who wants to build components that interact with AIM protocols. This includes client software as well.
Still, we’ll have to see if Jobs can make that deal with AOL for Apple’s own native Windows client (i.e. iChat for Windows). It a looks like the early iPod on Windows; at the time, MusicMatch was the software for managing iPod music library; soon enough, they developed iTunes for Windows. However, there, they didn’t work on anybody else’s property; here, they have AOL’s IM protocols to talk to. As I said, AOL might not be too happy about this.
Hum… Here is the thing… I really hope that APPLE is actually working on a video iPhone for video conference…
People have been using this for ages in Japan and Europe, and we still don’t have it in America? Who knew? I thought the biggest / baddest country in the world was up-to-date… I guess it ain’t afterall…
Let me say this: Communication in America is at a Third-World country state…
HELP US APPLE…
I have to agree with ポール. For various reasons, US is about four years behind the rest of the world. I have family in Serbia (for those with short memory, US bombed it into the stone age in ’99). Still, their mobile telephony has been 3G for past three years. Last year, the coverage was over 90% of the country (including the boondocks!), and large percentage of people were using their phones for video-conferencing. Yet, in the US, this is still the sci-fi…
Luckily for Americans, there is Apple…