...and is a lot more popular worldwide than anything Apple sells including iPhones.
This is a strange comparison; how can a piece of hardware be compared to a piece of software in such a way? In 2010 Apple sold 50m iPhones. In November Skype set a record of 22.25m unique users for one day. I think it's safe to assume most iPhones are used daily. Flawed logic? Perhaps, but that's sort of my point...you can't make such statements.
FaceTime is great. After Apple makes it available for Macs, iPad 2, and even AppleTV, they will have a lot of users coming onboard.
After that Google will probably put it in the (whatever OS is next) version in the Android phones.
Microsoft will also have to put it in their phone, just to keep up with the leaders. By then Apple will have put it in Windows.
Probably even Nokia might have to consider doing the same thing.
This will all probably happen in 2011. That should be a LOT of FaceTime users. Skype will feel the heat by then.
But Skype will continue having an advantage over FaceTime, as they can offer a Phone number to call everyone else and receive calls now. For some reason they don't make that very much a priority to let many people know. They should start doing that quick. Apple will try to figure something out to do away with paid cell phone service. The Carriers will NEVER give up on that Golden Goose.
This is great news for mobile devices in general and especially the iOS devices. Skype works great on our iPhones (3GS and 4) and does not drain the battery and suggested above. Having built in video chat seemed like a no brainer when the iPhone 4 was released but better late than never.
I like Skype and we have one account that we pay for an In and Out number (Online Number) and it works great.
Also, how many people are using Facetime? In our house we tend to gravitate towards Skype and we don't have to. That is because Facetime is only on iOS devices and Mac's so talking with Android / Windows / Linux people means Skype and those users still out number Mac's and iOS by a large number.
I love FaceTime and Skype. I'd love to see Skype (a full version) on the iPhone. FaceTime is great, but having it as an Apple only solution really limits usefulness. My niece has an iPod Touch... it's amazing... but millions of people use Skype. It's the standard.
It's like iWork vs. Office. You can love iWork to death, but at the end of the day, everyone uses Office.
FaceTime offers something Skype never will though. I'll explain.
Up until January of this year I was one of VERY few people, perhaps two or three of my friends who had Skype, and I live in a built up area of England. I used it to talk to my brother sometimes and for when I spent some time abroad to talk to another friend. This year, my best friend and his wife went to Africa for 6 months and suddenly, his parents and her parents and two or three of our friends all had Skype. It was the only real solution at the time (we all know how reliable MSN is as a video conferencing platform!).
Since my friends came back from Africa, once again, nobody uses it. My point is three-fold:
1) There is still a huge untapped market. There may be 500m user accounts on Skype, but the smart money says many belong to multiple account holding users. In November, Skype had it's record high of just shy of 23M unique users in a day. That's a lot, but point 1 is that there are a heck of a lot of people who still haven't bought into Skype that Apple can reach with an altogether simpler system like FaceTime, built right into their device without them having to go to Skype.com and download, install, register etc.
2) FaceTime doesn't require a user account and the forethought to download the software. You don't have to sign your dad and your nan up for Skype accounts to get them going "Oh, that's clever!". You just show them FaceTime on their Macs/iPods/iPhones/iPads. If you've tried to get someone of the older generation to sign up for something online, you'll know they really don't like doing so. It doesn't sit well with them.
3) No logging in. This is the kicker; Skype requires too big a behavioural shift to truly become a household item for everyday, just-nipping-down-the-shops use. A Skype call is an event, not a frivolous part of every day life. There may be a huge minority of people who use MSN/Yahoo/Skype for one reason or another, but most people just do not. They DO use their phones. FaceTime has the potential to have people calling each other a la Jetsons (SJ seemed to like that idea!) because it doesn't require you to be logged in as such. Just having your phone on you means you're logged in. The behaviour shift is only one from an audio call to an audio-visual call. That jump is not just more plausible, I'd say it's down-right inevitable in the long-term.
My aunt recently summed it up when I got her to sign up (despite the aforementioned trepidation) to Skype so she and my dad could talk when she said: "I'll just have to text you when I want you to sign into Skype."
Regardless of who has facetime, whether its APPLE or SKYPE or GOOGLE the key factor to it being a success is being able to use it on 3G and not only Wi-Fi. Hopefully, the carriers will eventually upgrade their networks and be able to have the bandwidth available for Facetime over 3G or 4G.
For those of us that were around at the 1964 Worlds Fair, FaceTime was being shown under a different name and it never took off because of the cost.
The standard already exists, SIP, published by the IETF just like the email protocols. If Apple was truly interested in open standards they would have used that.
Actually, according to the keynote at the WWDC 2010, they did.
But SIP is not really a complete standard for VoIP, it is a protocol to initiate the session (Session Initiation Protocol, or something similar :-). It can be used for a lot of stuff other than VoIP and it needs to be complemented by a set of other protocols for the communications and so on.
The slides talked also about the other standards, i think that Facetime is actually an ombrella standard with a few integration rules.
Existing mobile video chat based on telephony standards is not only much poorer quality and so more expensive to use that it is not in common use, but is also tied to mobile networks, and therefore can't interoperate with desktop computers to set up mobile to PC video connections the way FaceTime can.
While the rest of the article make a quite precise analysis, there is a detail here that is important and plainly wrong; in Europe, usually video calls are included in the standard phone subscription; a video call cost the same as a phone call, and it is integrated in the normal talk time defined in your subscription plan.
And *nobody* use it; in the last five years in Paris, for example, i never saw somebody making a video call in the street or while commuting; it seems that mobile video is just somethings europeans do not want (do not ask me why).
FaceTime seems like such a great idea until you use it.
You have to hold the iPhone at arm's length if you don't want your face to look distorted, and then you have to shout at the phone to make yourself heard.
Besides, most people's faces don't look so good on camera -- they're used to seeing themselves in a mirror, so the reversed image of their face can be quite jarring.
I was so excited to get FaceTime, but on the first use, I decided I need to get a wig and extensive plastic surgery
...in Europe, usually video calls are included in the standard phone subscription; a video call cost the same as a phone call, and it is integrated in the normal talk time defined in your subscription plan.
And *nobody* use it; in the last five years in Paris, for example, i never saw somebody making a video call in the street or while commuting; it seems that mobile video is just somethings europeans do not want (do not ask me why).
Really, just how much do you know about the countless European network operators to make such sweeping statements?
It's certainly not the case with the majority of the UK networks nor in other European countries I've been to; don't mistake Paris for the whole of Europe.
I'll give you credit for one observation though, I'm yet to see someone making video calls in a public place be it Facetime, 3G video or otherwise. It's anecdotal but people just don't seem to have a use for mobile video calls generally.
So they can sign to each other over video? I can see signing in person being ideal, but when you have an handheld communicating device you?re already limiting your abilities with a device in hand and you have writing, a much more efficient method of communication for most uses. I?d think all those who are not blind are on par with FaceTime usage.
FaceTime seems like such a great idea until you use it.
You have to hold the iPhone at arm's length if you don't want your face to look distorted, and then you have to shout at the phone to make yourself heard.
Besides, most people's faces don't look so good on camera -- they're used to seeing themselves in a mirror, so the reversed image of their face can be quite jarring.
I was so excited to get FaceTime, but on the first use, I decided I need to get a wig and extensive plastic surgery
Too bad it doesn't work for you, but it's been a great servant for me, my girlfriend and my family. I doubted I would ever use it because of its limit at start because either no one else I know of has an iPhone 4 or I'm not interested in video chatting with the folk that do have iPhone 4.
However, I've been using it more than I expected after Apple introduced FaceTime for Mac. There are often times that I don't have my laptop with me or I simply don't want to sit in front of my MacBook for such a lengthy time. My iPhone gives me a lot of flexibility. I can take it with me and show whatever I think is interesting to them. Furthermore there's virtually no setting-up at all so the other side and I can go straight to the video chat rather than fuzzing with all the sign-in, set-up thing. I can only imagine it grows further after we can FaceTime on 3G as well.
This is a strange comparison; how can a piece of hardware be compared to a piece of software in such a way? In 2010 Apple sold 50m iPhones. In November Skype set a record of 22.25m unique users for one day. I think it's safe to assume most iPhones are used daily. Flawed logic? Perhaps, but that's sort of my point...you can't make such statements.
Skype has 500+ million registered users = popular.
Skype has 500 million+ registered users = popular.
Does that clarify my point?
How many of those Skype users are actively using their accounts?
I never use mine anymore but I?m sure I?m counted in that tally. I even have money on my account that I?ll never use. In fact, I dropped my Skype In number when Google Voice came online. I only ever used Skype for their In/Out services for voice calls to or from proper phone in the US when traveling abroad. Worked surprising well over very, very, very slow internet connections.
I can see a universal, open video conferencing protocol suite being popular and making Skype?s video chat only useful when chatting between Skype users, a limitation that FaceTime will not have as it evolves. The number of products and apps that will be able to integrate FaceTime will be innumerable.
On top of that, as Jonamac stated, the connectivity is dead simple compared to Skype?s video chat.
Skype will still have their other services, but are Skype In/Out that good? As I stated, I dropped mine for Google Voice which is what I use when I need to give a non-friend or family member a phone number, though it will forward to my cellphone. Does Google Voice operate as widely as Skype In?
My grade-school age son lives with his mother in Mexico. I live in the US. He and I have tried Skype and iChat. Neither worked well. (1) I had to set up the video chat first with telephone call. (2) The Mexican ISP is not good. Consequently video and even audio quality were often poor. With Facetime (1) is not a problem. My son often calls me at his breakfast time, often waking me up. Having my iPhone RING is a great advantage. He uses either a fourth generation ipod touch or his macbook. As for (2), Facetime seems to work far better. Only occasionally are calls unworkable. I should add that my son has a hearing problem, so good audio is a sine qua non. That is why I had abandoned Skype-out as a way to talk to him. My phone bill has dropped by many hundreds of dollars a month since we started using FT. One more point. With a child, one can do silly things like pantomine or play games or show drawings. Or one can just BE THERE. It is a wonderful way to stay in touch between visits.
I am a long time fan of skype. It really does have something to offer the user.
1- Widespread international adoption
2- Cross platform interoperability
3- Ability to call landline and cell phones directly
I use skype occasionally to make phone calls from my Touch over wifi. No need for a cell phone plan!
The video for Skype on my Mac is pretty good, certainly good enough for a video chat. They have saved us thousands of dollars over the last several years. Or, more accurately, allowed us to keep in touch with friends and family overseas in a way we never would have without them.
Skype is definitely one of the good guys!!!
Obviously you haven't spent any time on the Skype forums. Skype is one of the most unsecured platofrms out. It is riddled with scams, holes, and the Mac vesion of Skype is a resource hog.
1. Yes it is internationally adopted because it was first. Truphone could be a real competitior if they could get their act together and they are.
2. As for cross-platform, the Mac version is simply aweful.
3. Truphone, Fring, and a few others offer the same thing.
Maybe you have low standards but Skype is aweful. Hopefully FaceTime will put pressure on Skype and they will fold.
Comments
...and is a lot more popular worldwide than anything Apple sells including iPhones.
This is a strange comparison; how can a piece of hardware be compared to a piece of software in such a way? In 2010 Apple sold 50m iPhones. In November Skype set a record of 22.25m unique users for one day. I think it's safe to assume most iPhones are used daily. Flawed logic? Perhaps, but that's sort of my point...you can't make such statements.
After that Google will probably put it in the (whatever OS is next) version in the Android phones.
Microsoft will also have to put it in their phone, just to keep up with the leaders. By then Apple will have put it in Windows.
Probably even Nokia might have to consider doing the same thing.
This will all probably happen in 2011. That should be a LOT of FaceTime users. Skype will feel the heat by then.
But Skype will continue having an advantage over FaceTime, as they can offer a Phone number to call everyone else and receive calls now. For some reason they don't make that very much a priority to let many people know. They should start doing that quick. Apple will try to figure something out to do away with paid cell phone service. The Carriers will NEVER give up on that Golden Goose.
I like Skype and we have one account that we pay for an In and Out number (Online Number) and it works great.
Also, how many people are using Facetime? In our house we tend to gravitate towards Skype and we don't have to. That is because Facetime is only on iOS devices and Mac's so talking with Android / Windows / Linux people means Skype and those users still out number Mac's and iOS by a large number.
It's like iWork vs. Office. You can love iWork to death, but at the end of the day, everyone uses Office.
Up until January of this year I was one of VERY few people, perhaps two or three of my friends who had Skype, and I live in a built up area of England. I used it to talk to my brother sometimes and for when I spent some time abroad to talk to another friend. This year, my best friend and his wife went to Africa for 6 months and suddenly, his parents and her parents and two or three of our friends all had Skype. It was the only real solution at the time (we all know how reliable MSN is as a video conferencing platform!).
Since my friends came back from Africa, once again, nobody uses it. My point is three-fold:
1) There is still a huge untapped market. There may be 500m user accounts on Skype, but the smart money says many belong to multiple account holding users. In November, Skype had it's record high of just shy of 23M unique users in a day. That's a lot, but point 1 is that there are a heck of a lot of people who still haven't bought into Skype that Apple can reach with an altogether simpler system like FaceTime, built right into their device without them having to go to Skype.com and download, install, register etc.
2) FaceTime doesn't require a user account and the forethought to download the software. You don't have to sign your dad and your nan up for Skype accounts to get them going "Oh, that's clever!". You just show them FaceTime on their Macs/iPods/iPhones/iPads. If you've tried to get someone of the older generation to sign up for something online, you'll know they really don't like doing so. It doesn't sit well with them.
3) No logging in. This is the kicker; Skype requires too big a behavioural shift to truly become a household item for everyday, just-nipping-down-the-shops use. A Skype call is an event, not a frivolous part of every day life. There may be a huge minority of people who use MSN/Yahoo/Skype for one reason or another, but most people just do not. They DO use their phones. FaceTime has the potential to have people calling each other a la Jetsons (SJ seemed to like that idea!) because it doesn't require you to be logged in as such. Just having your phone on you means you're logged in. The behaviour shift is only one from an audio call to an audio-visual call. That jump is not just more plausible, I'd say it's down-right inevitable in the long-term.
My aunt recently summed it up when I got her to sign up (despite the aforementioned trepidation) to Skype so she and my dad could talk when she said: "I'll just have to text you when I want you to sign into Skype."
For those of us that were around at the 1964 Worlds Fair, FaceTime was being shown under a different name and it never took off because of the cost.
The standard already exists, SIP, published by the IETF just like the email protocols. If Apple was truly interested in open standards they would have used that.
Actually, according to the keynote at the WWDC 2010, they did.
But SIP is not really a complete standard for VoIP, it is a protocol to initiate the session (Session Initiation Protocol, or something similar :-). It can be used for a lot of stuff other than VoIP and it needs to be complemented by a set of other protocols for the communications and so on.
The slides talked also about the other standards, i think that Facetime is actually an ombrella standard with a few integration rules.
Existing mobile video chat based on telephony standards is not only much poorer quality and so more expensive to use that it is not in common use, but is also tied to mobile networks, and therefore can't interoperate with desktop computers to set up mobile to PC video connections the way FaceTime can.
While the rest of the article make a quite precise analysis, there is a detail here that is important and plainly wrong; in Europe, usually video calls are included in the standard phone subscription; a video call cost the same as a phone call, and it is integrated in the normal talk time defined in your subscription plan.
And *nobody* use it; in the last five years in Paris, for example, i never saw somebody making a video call in the street or while commuting; it seems that mobile video is just somethings europeans do not want (do not ask me why).
Desktop video is something different.
Looking forward to something from Apple that does the same thing.
Fring and Skype are worthless. Suitable for people who love Windows.
eh.. skype is very useful thanks and I have no love for windows.
If you keep banning IP addresses, you will begin to ban some of the most popular Starbuck's locations in a major Northeast city.
Just so you know.
And BTW, IP addresses are in infinite supply to me, so banning IPs does exactly nothing bad for me.
If you'd like, we can agree to just get along.
You have to hold the iPhone at arm's length if you don't want your face to look distorted, and then you have to shout at the phone to make yourself heard.
Besides, most people's faces don't look so good on camera -- they're used to seeing themselves in a mirror, so the reversed image of their face can be quite jarring.
I was so excited to get FaceTime, but on the first use, I decided I need to get a wig and extensive plastic surgery
...in Europe, usually video calls are included in the standard phone subscription; a video call cost the same as a phone call, and it is integrated in the normal talk time defined in your subscription plan.
And *nobody* use it; in the last five years in Paris, for example, i never saw somebody making a video call in the street or while commuting; it seems that mobile video is just somethings europeans do not want (do not ask me why).
Really, just how much do you know about the countless European network operators to make such sweeping statements?
It's certainly not the case with the majority of the UK networks nor in other European countries I've been to; don't mistake Paris for the whole of Europe.
I'll give you credit for one observation though, I'm yet to see someone making video calls in a public place be it Facetime, 3G video or otherwise. It's anecdotal but people just don't seem to have a use for mobile video calls generally.
It's anecdotal but people just don't seem to have a use for mobile video calls generally.
Deaf people do, apparently.
Deaf people do, apparently.
So they can sign to each other over video? I can see signing in person being ideal, but when you have an handheld communicating device you?re already limiting your abilities with a device in hand and you have writing, a much more efficient method of communication for most uses. I?d think all those who are not blind are on par with FaceTime usage.
FaceTime seems like such a great idea until you use it.
You have to hold the iPhone at arm's length if you don't want your face to look distorted, and then you have to shout at the phone to make yourself heard.
Besides, most people's faces don't look so good on camera -- they're used to seeing themselves in a mirror, so the reversed image of their face can be quite jarring.
I was so excited to get FaceTime, but on the first use, I decided I need to get a wig and extensive plastic surgery
Too bad it doesn't work for you, but it's been a great servant for me, my girlfriend and my family. I doubted I would ever use it because of its limit at start because either no one else I know of has an iPhone 4 or I'm not interested in video chatting with the folk that do have iPhone 4.
However, I've been using it more than I expected after Apple introduced FaceTime for Mac. There are often times that I don't have my laptop with me or I simply don't want to sit in front of my MacBook for such a lengthy time. My iPhone gives me a lot of flexibility. I can take it with me and show whatever I think is interesting to them. Furthermore there's virtually no setting-up at all so the other side and I can go straight to the video chat rather than fuzzing with all the sign-in, set-up thing. I can only imagine it grows further after we can FaceTime on 3G as well.
This is a strange comparison; how can a piece of hardware be compared to a piece of software in such a way? In 2010 Apple sold 50m iPhones. In November Skype set a record of 22.25m unique users for one day. I think it's safe to assume most iPhones are used daily. Flawed logic? Perhaps, but that's sort of my point...you can't make such statements.
Skype has 500+ million registered users = popular.
Does that clarify my point?
Skype has 500 million+ registered users = popular.
Does that clarify my point?
How many of those Skype users are actively using their accounts?
I never use mine anymore but I?m sure I?m counted in that tally. I even have money on my account that I?ll never use. In fact, I dropped my Skype In number when Google Voice came online. I only ever used Skype for their In/Out services for voice calls to or from proper phone in the US when traveling abroad. Worked surprising well over very, very, very slow internet connections.
I can see a universal, open video conferencing protocol suite being popular and making Skype?s video chat only useful when chatting between Skype users, a limitation that FaceTime will not have as it evolves. The number of products and apps that will be able to integrate FaceTime will be innumerable.
On top of that, as Jonamac stated, the connectivity is dead simple compared to Skype?s video chat.
Skype will still have their other services, but are Skype In/Out that good? As I stated, I dropped mine for Google Voice which is what I use when I need to give a non-friend or family member a phone number, though it will forward to my cellphone. Does Google Voice operate as widely as Skype In?
I am a long time fan of skype. It really does have something to offer the user.
1- Widespread international adoption
2- Cross platform interoperability
3- Ability to call landline and cell phones directly
I use skype occasionally to make phone calls from my Touch over wifi. No need for a cell phone plan!
The video for Skype on my Mac is pretty good, certainly good enough for a video chat. They have saved us thousands of dollars over the last several years. Or, more accurately, allowed us to keep in touch with friends and family overseas in a way we never would have without them.
Skype is definitely one of the good guys!!!
Obviously you haven't spent any time on the Skype forums. Skype is one of the most unsecured platofrms out. It is riddled with scams, holes, and the Mac vesion of Skype is a resource hog.
1. Yes it is internationally adopted because it was first. Truphone could be a real competitior if they could get their act together and they are.
2. As for cross-platform, the Mac version is simply aweful.
3. Truphone, Fring, and a few others offer the same thing.
Maybe you have low standards but Skype is aweful. Hopefully FaceTime will put pressure on Skype and they will fold.