Could Apple’s FaceTime realize the longstanding ideal of ubiquitous video telephony?
Mobile phone users will only adopt video telephony on a large scale if it is available for a large market share of phones. Although FaceTime, introduced by Apple, seems to make video telephony very appealing as an application (e.g. no set-up required, switching between front and back camera) this situation can only be reached if it is standardized through open standards. Now, the interesting thing is, Apple wants to make FaceTime open (see the presentation by Steve Jobs at the WWDC 2010), surprise!
Video telephony is a very old idea, no company really succeeded in the past to make it a successful innovation, used on a broad scale. So, if Apple succeeds in pushing the FaceTime application (what it can do) and technologies (& how) into open standards, they will have managed to make this longstanding ideal a reality.
I think they got the application right: an easy way for video telephony in multiple real-life situations. My question remains, will they succeed to push this into open standards? I will be watching this closely.
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