Skype’s Face Slap – FaceTime comes with Apple iPhone 4.0

So FaceTime will be Apple’s answer to Skype Video, the Jetson’s or StarTrek communicators. Apple just released the fourth generation iPhone details. Few surprises from my perspective. I liked the way elements are positioned with a technical argument underpinning them. Eg the pixels on the camera or the screen construction. Yes I want one, and I see it as evolutionary. Still if you want a challenge write the iPhone 5.0 specs for next year from an Arts and Science perspective.

I wrote some weeks back Skype and iPhone 4.0 – Watch everyone now scramble….Telecoms and Social Networks where I suggested the sheer size the of the iPhone user base had the opportunity to set a new communications revolution in place. I wrote it from a Skype perspective and generally pointed at the opportunities for competitors. Also obvious was Apple’s interest in supporting the gaming networks with voice. Which I’ve not yet seen much written about.

I’m also sure many Skype fans were disappointed today that Apple to chose to launch their own Video Calling app which will work iPhone 4 to iPhone 4. (not clear what else it may work with). I don’t even know the specs for it. Yet the photo’s and apple video make it look very easy to use. The operators will like it as it doesn’t intend to take on SMS or challenge with chat. Plus Apple has limited it to WiFi only for now.

I saw an early tweet that suggested that Apple had missed the boat by not using Skype as the lead for Video. This tweet also referred to the the fax suggesting that iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 would have the same early adoption problem. I actually disagree. Facetime is potentially brilliant. Here’s some reasons why.

1. No immediate threat to AT&T re SMS or by launching a “video chat” client. Potential pathway that shows them how to leverage video calling. Apple also gets
2. No threat to chat clients that go across device types. No favorites. This is really a demo of the API for all the games, dating sites etc. (Haha!)
3. No registration to participate! Don’t need an account just an iPhone 4
4. Every iPhone 4 comes with it preloaded. Skype will never reach the same number.
5. All those families that upgrade (four in my household) the first mobile video experience on every iPhone will be Apple’s. Thus all others will have to match it just to get run in the background.
6. It’s personal – family plans are the best first use case. Even on Skype Video we only do it with a few. Video with anyone or everyone is a ways off.
7. No need to download an App to participate. Note I saw last week there were 5 million downloads of Skype for iPhone (with the 2.0 upgrade) – iPhone4.0 will sell more than this in short order.
8. Apple by not working as partners with Skype can pursue their own video related agreements re 3G based on their own dataset. That’s important to their own carrier agreements.
9. In three months Apple will have the largest Mobile Video Calling” network in the world.
10. Easy for developers to use this. Means that Twitter Apps, Facebook, Games etc can all use this video setup just like AR programs use the camera currently.

So where does this leave Skype? They still have a huge opportunity. However, they are a little like Kindle now. Kindle remains better for those that use it. The problem is the iPhone/iPad is introducing a whole new generation to digital books and Kindle like Skype now is not the default for the service.

Thus Apples forces the “cross-device” guys to work on quality, and come up with things that work Android to Apple, Nokia to Apple, PC to Apple etc. In the meantime they define the experience which then gets adopted across 1000′s of apps.

Tagged as: facetime