FaceTime and Why Apple’s Massive Integration Advantage is Just Beginning

I'll partly agree with the first part of that statement, but does that mean that HTC/Sprint should have left it out of the EVO? Certainly not. Sprint invested a great deal in its WiMax infrastructure, and releasing a phone that takes advantage of it now brings in much-needed revenue (the added $10/mo + $29 optional hotspot fees), and it increases public awareness of 4G. The HTC EVO is a walking PR machine/proof of concept for 4G, and it just put Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile into catch-up mode. I think it was a brilliant move on Sprint's part, and they'll enjoy the benefits for at least the next year or so.

The reason Apple won't include 4G on next year's iPhone is that for better or worse, they are still stuck with AT&T (exclusivity contract expiration aside, there's no GSM alternative, and CDMA is out). AT&T can't even get 3G to run on all cylinders without breaking the network and angering customers. To roll out 4G and charge customers more for it (following Sprint's lead), they would have to offer users a much better experience. The other reason Apple will leave it out is that they need to offer users a compelling reason to get the iPhone 6.

FaceTime makes video-calling on the Android-based Sprint HTC EVO look silly, because the EVO awkwardly requires users to sign up and download a third-party app, then launch it every time they want to talk. Normal people simply won’t do this.

I whole-heartedly disagree with this. Facetime forces users to only call other iPhone 4 users, and only over Wi-Fi. The HTC EVO might be less convenient in that you have to use Fring or Qik, but these apps are available on multiple platforms (Windows Mobile, Nokia, etc), widening the group of people you can reach. Video chat also works over 3G/4G, which for me trumps iPhone's "instant-on" convenience. Perfect use case was our company's 4th of July BBQ...I was able to use my EVO at the park to video chat, while my coworkers with the iPhone 4 missed out because there was no WiFi (unless they were to connect to my EVO's hotspot).

It may be open, but that doesn't guarantee adoption...to date, only the iPhone 4 makes use of it, whereas Fring and Qik already operate on multiple platforms. If Facetime does manage to catch on and other manufacturers adopt it, then the iPhone loses that competitive advantage, since there will be plenty of Android, Symbian, and Windows phones that use it. The other OSes have the advantage of being able to use other standards as well (because Apple will not allow an app that competes with Facetime in its app store).

Where's the spec?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3115535/cant-find-ios-fac...

h.264: http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.264-200305-S

aac: http://www.arm.com/files/pdf/PRD10-GENC-001288-4-0.pdf

sip: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3261

turn: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5766

rtp: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3550

srtp: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3711