Video telephony was a tough sell even before AT&T introduced the "PicturePhone" as a consumer product at the 1964 World Fair. Will Apple -- ironically bypassing AT&T's wireless data network -- finally make this dream come true?
The Apple iPhone 4 will pack a front-facing camera and an app for Apple's new FaceTime video chat network on its June 24 release, enabling two-way video calls with other iPhone 4 users over a W-Fi network. Even within the home, where video calls have been largely confined to desktops and laptops, Apple's device and others like it will finally put video calling at our fingertips. Just not over 3G (more on this later).
For iPhone 4 users, this reliance on Wi-Fi for video chat could be a mere occasional inconvenience, because they can still use the phone's HD camera to record or stream live events and have other communication options on hand. Plus, we don't yet view video chat as an always-on mobile necessity, and the unlimited data plans that would make mobile video feel free started disappearing on the eve of Apple's FaceTime rollout anyway.
For the rest of us, it means we'll be spared -- for now -- the sight and sound of people placing lengthy video calls on the sidewalk, the bus, or in movie theaters, although they could still happen on planes, trains and other places where Wi-Fi is popping up.
FaceTime faces behavioral as well as technical challenges. Video-over-IP calls remain a small piece of the overall communications pie within the home, in part because there are many advantages to not having to visually engage people every time you talk to them.
David Foster Wallace anticipates the problem in a section of his novel Infinite Jest, in which a future populace rejects video telephony due to "videophonic stress," vanity and an associated inability to multitask surreptitiously:
(Thanks to Kottke for the quote.)
Mobile-video calls will have mixed effects on both our public spaces and our wireless data plans, if they take off on a mass scale. Apple hardware has exploded demand for existing technologies before (MP3 player, smartphone, mobile-app store), and Steve Jobs says carriers will be up to the task after 2010. Until then, FaceTime chatters will be confined to static or portable Wi-Fi.
At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, Jobs placed a two-way video call over Apple's upcoming video chat network with an iPhone 4 -- one of several demonstrations at the event, some of which were plagued by Wi-Fi interference. Wired.com staff also got it to work briefly while the wireless network in Moscone Center was up to the task -- a neat, if unintentional, demonstration of the bandwidth challenges faced by mobile-video chat.
AT&T's data network apparently cannot handle the heavy bandwidth demands of Apple's FaceTime video chat app, even if consumers have to pay for each byte they send and receive. iPhone 4 owners can get FaceTime wherever they have Wi-Fi, presumably without Apple dictating what they put in front of the camera, but no video calls are allowed over AT&T's 3G network with Apple's app -- even if you're willing to sacrifice a chunk of your limited AT&T bandwidth for the call.
The network simply isn't ready -- and by that we mean not only AT&T's network, but any other large scale U.S. wireless network -- to handle millions of devices streaming video up to and down from a wireless network simultaneously, in near-real time, without degrading the video to the point where it's scarcely worth it.
Skype and others have established strong footholds in mobile VOIP in advance of the widespread introduction of front-facing cameras on cellphones, but Apple will likely carve out its own mobile video chat fiefdom with FaceTime.
The company expects to sell its hundred-millionth iOS device this month, and Jobs says Apple will install the app on every iPhone 4. Adding to his fleet, Future iOS (formerly iPhone OS) devices will also likely feature it as well as the accompanying front-facing camera (the iPod Touch is a solid candidate due to its design similarity to the iPhone and Wi-Fi connection, while the iPad's larger screen makes it a natural fit for video chat).
Apple's device-specific software will compete with Skype and other apps on Apple's iOS platform, but the company plans to open FaceTime as a standard to let competing apps call and receive calls from its new FaceTime chat network, which should be enough to avoid potential accusations of unfair bundling similar to the ones that plagued Microsoft a decade ago, and that's not all.
Assuming Apple doesn't reject their apps, Skype and other companies should also be able to develop video-capable chat software with FaceTime as just one of several options including their own video-capable networks, whether over Wi-Fi or 3G. The latter would hopefully run at a low quality, considering video calls' potentially devastating impact on a limited data plan.
The iPhone 4 isn't the only phone with a front-facing camera. Others include the Linux-based Nokia N900 and Android-based Sprint HTC EVO, with several other models rumored to be on the way.
The ability to place video calls between competing platforms will likely become a key extra feature as:
- The option becomes commonplace.
- Network speeds increase from 3G to 4G in more parts of the country.
- Those limited data plans that everyone seems to complain about ease congestion on cell networks.
- Cell providers keep building out their infrastructure to keep up with everything else.
These would give Apple additional incentive to open FaceTime and try to make it a video-chat standard.
But even if a third-party app developer manages to get Apple to approve a video-chat program for the iPhone 4's front-facing camera that connects with 3G, their users must still contend with AT&T's freshly-imposed 3G data limits and so will likely seek Wi-Fi anyway.
Besides, cultural barriers that have blocked the widespread adoption of video chat for decades could remain. Our sidewalks are safe for now, pending improvements to wireless networks or possibly a new tier in cell companies' wireless data plans, priced with video calling in mind.
See Also:
- Netflix for iPhone Is Coming, Subject to AT&T’s Data Caps
- Shut Up and Text: Why Voice Is Just Another Phone Feature
- Apple Unveils High-Resolution, Videoconferencing iPhone 4
- Photo Gallery: Hands-On With the iPhone 4
- Will iPhone 4's Audio and Video Chat Finally Break the Voice Calling Scam?
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
