Why Facetime?

[GrayApple]

I just downloaded facetime to give it a quick look, and realized I didn't have anyone with an iPhone 4 to call. So I thought I would shout out to a friend with a macbook and thought, "Isn't this what iChat is for?"
While this does partially belong in the iPhone category, I think it fits here as well.
Why not simply make Facetime and iChat interchangable or better yet instead of making a new program, simply have put iChat onto the new iPhone?

 

[cherry su]

I just downloaded facetime to give it a quick look, and realized I didn't have anyone with an iPhone 4 to call. So I thought I would shout out to a friend with a macbook and thought, "Isn't this what iChat is for?"
While this does partially belong in the iPhone category, I think it fits here as well.
Why not simply make Facetime and iChat interchangable or better yet instead of making a new program, simply have put iChat onto the new iPhone?

FaceTime is Apple's video chat protocol, much like AIM and Google Talk. iChat is simply a chat client (that does not come with a service). The FaceTime app is a chat client that only supports the FaceTime protocol. Apple probably didn't roll out a new iChat update to support the FaceTime protocol because Apple wanted to just ship a compatible version in 10.7.

 

[cmChimera]

Also, notice that Facetime will receive video calls regardless if you have the program running or not. One reason it's not part of iChat may be that they didn't want the extra load of logging in to all of you IM accounts, or asking you if you want to sign in etc.

 

[Aidoneus]

As for not putting iChat on the iPhone, Apple wanted to introduce a new platform for video chat in FaceTime; giving such a platform such an obviously proprietary name as iChat would impede adoption by other handset manufacturers.

 

[arnop]

I quite like it to be able to 'see' someone at the office while I'm on the street