[Hands0n]

Those who know me will also know that I am a bit of a fan of the Videocall that has been all-but abandoned by the 3G networks who charge punitively for its use with the possible exception of O2 who (I believe still do) charge out of your bundled minutes. The rest of the networks will be happy to charge you from 50p to 60p per minutes out of bundle for the privilege.

But why should Videocall be a privilege at all? It isn't anywhere else, say PC to PC or Mac to Mac. And to the mobile network operators it is all just a stream of data, nothing fancier than that, costing them no more to carry than 3G data or voice.

So, back in 2003 (03/03/03 ring any bells?) it was soon after the public launch of the 3 network that I grabbed a pair of NEC e606 handsets and made my first Videocall. Being used to corporate Video conference suites of the day the quality of the video was no surprise to me at all. Although the general public did not seem too enamoured - perhaps being misled by the silly TV advertising of the day that was very suggestive of broadcast quality. That was never going to be.

Fast forward to 2010 and Apple are at it again, setting the ground for possibly a Videocalling renaissance. I think, with Apple, it is folly to dust them off into the side too quickly. We need to wait and see how FaceTime plays out.

Simple to use
Using FaceTime is typical of the Apple experience. It simply works, simply.

Fully integrating into the iPhone's Contacts and Phone application, all you need to do is find the contact you want and, if they are registered on to FaceTime, a camera icon appears in the FaceTime button in the list of calling options. If they are not in reach of a WiFi (and hence cannot contact the FaceTime servers) the icon disappears. Simples.

So, find the contact, press the FaceTime button and the other person's iPhone rings as normal. Their screen asks if you want to accept a FaceTime call and, supposing they do, it then connects you and the call can progress.

In use
In use the tool continues to be simple. At the outset the iPhone uses the front-facing camera, and the image quality, even in relatively low incandescent light, is rather good. An on-screen button allows you to flip to the rear-facing camera and a small window shows the image that is being sent.

You can drag the small "sending" window to any of the four corners of the screen

Rotate the iPhone and the image you're sending will change from Portrait to Landscape at the other end. You can even rotate the handset upside down and it will resolve at the other end (also upside down).

Image quality
The image quality is, frankly, superb. This is a universe away from 3G Videocalling as it was and remains today. The iPhone and FaceTime do Videocall a full justice across the WiFi. I do suspect, however, that the quality will drop off when or if they enable this calling capability over 3G.

I would like to see this work in daylight where the image quality should be even higher. But it has to be said that the quality is absolutely fine. Above what I would expect.

Conclusions
Fair enough, I am biased towards Videocall and all the benefits that it can offer. And I accept that I am a relatively lone voice, right now. But I do believe that Apple has the potential with FaceTime to make a success out of a previously damp squib. Especially as it costs absolutely nothing to use.

When could you use Facetime? I reckon that if you're running low on minutes you could seek out any free WiFi, such as Macdonalds, and make a call from there. No privacy risks if you use your headset.

I do not expect FaceTime to be much of a threat to the mobile operators - in fact it may be a "halo effect" and drive up the use of 3G Videocall as and when Apple open it up on the iPhone.

FaceTime may turn into nothing. And Apple seem to be doing nothing with it so far other than making it available. But it is very early days yet. If they can commercialise it, say for developers, in a later release it may well turn into a revenue-earning stream.

What I do believe, however, is that we may just be witnessing the re-birth of the Videocall.

[Ben]

It's pretty awesome, isn't it. We'll have to give it a go some time, because I haven't had chance to use it much.

Really is so simple... and the kicker is that it's completely free. It's just a vastly superior implementation of video calling on a phone than 3G video calling is. Unfortunately it's severely handicapped by being restricted to the iPhone - though the new iPod Touch will widen the pool a little.

[The Mullet of G]

I've made 4 or 5 FaceTime calls mostly to other noobs who'd never tried it, I found it a bit underwhelming to be honest, also it was a bit slow to connect even when standing next to each other on the same wifi network, it failed to connect at all a couple of times.

I haven't seen any statistics, but judging by the iPhone owners I've been speaking to I'd say FaceTime is a bit of a fail. I suspect Apple misjudged the video calling thing, most of the people I speak to didn't make video calls before, not because they couldn't as it was frankly easy unless you were a complete turnip, but more so because its not how they use their phones, they have no need to see the person they are speaking to, and it frankly doesn't excite them.

I can see that it probably has uses elsewhere depending on how you use your phone, but the average punter doesn't seem to care for it much. :)

[Hands0n]

The connection times, regardless of your co-location to the other party, are governed by a number of factors. The FaceTime servers have to have knowledge of both devices state of "presence" on the FaceTime 'net'. The incumbent available bandwidth of the Internet facility you are [both] on will have some bearing too. That kind of stuff.

Distance separates - and the notion that people will be able to see, when they want to, the person at the other end is attractive for many. Especially if the cost is basically zero. It is far too early to judge the success or fail of FaceTime. Only through its promotion and word of mouth will it become more in the users's eye. I suspect many people don't even register that the iPhone can do FaceTime. It is just one more feature in a list of many. But yes, at this stage in our evolution Videocall is a novelty for the great majority, I would contend, and desirable or even essential to a relative few.

I read that Apple intend releasing the FaceTime standard into the wider world, it uses industry standard technologies such as H.264 and many others. Will the other manufacturers take it up? For sure there will be usual howling at the moon by the mass of the church of the nay say. A future update of iChat is expected to be updated to be FaceTime compliant. The next iPad, it is speculated, will sport a front facing camera to support FaceTime.

So at least Apple is committed to FaceTime. Can they excite sufficient of their established users to start using the technology? Plenty said they would fail with the iPhone. Even more said that the tablet (iPad) would fail as all did before. In both cases Apple did the supposedly unlikely and turned out successes that speak for themselves. Six million iOS devices ship each and every single month. Definitely a space to watch.