Why facetime is better than others

I am proud user of my new iphone 4, one of the latest features is facetime. I was skeptical if it would be good enough to use it on a daily basis. I tried Qik and Skype on mobile devices and was not very impressed. Images refresh were very slow and sound as good as an old phone form the 50s. Skype worked fine when I used voice only or if I had a perfect wifi connection.
With facetime it is different, the sound is crystal clear and images are refreshing very well. I was wondering why this is so much better. The solution is so simple, but effective.
Apple does take advantage of the ability to separate voice from video. When you use facetime, you are basically opening two channels. First the voice channel over classic ATT carrier and then a second channel for video of Wifi. Similar like, when you use at your computer skype for video but for voice you use at the same time your landline.
The result is that the voice is perfect, and when the image does not refresh instantly it is not a big deal, you would not complain. Qik and Skype are both going either complete over 3G or Wifi, or in other words as pure data connection. If there is a problem with the connection speed, sound and video quality goes down. Facetime is using for sound the voice carrier (normal call), which means the connection does not need to be perfect to get good sound. Because the video is like looking at youtube during your call, you are not feeling any delay in sound, even if image is not as good in quality (when the Wifi connection is bad). This gives you the false experience that facetime works perfect.
For me is the best approach right now, till our mobile internet is fast and stable enough to have again both bundled as data transfer. And of course it helps the carrier to have a reason to sell still voice plans.
People will use facetime much more than skype or Qik, because it is too easy to use and voice quality is as good as a normal call. But because you make a real voice call for sound, your minutes will be used, which is not a problem right now, because facetime does only work on iphone 4and other Apple devices end of this year. I don’t see facetime coming on devices which don’t have a voice plan, if Apple does not come with another version of facetime, which allows calling from a computer to a cell phone using only data connection, similar using skype to call a land line.
Interesting gets if you have an unlocked iphone or if you call people overseas or outside the country, or if facetime comes out for other phones at other carriers. All facetime calls are going through voice carrier for your sound, this means high roaming costs. I can see a lot of people spending tons of money to call relatives overseas and knowing that ATT will charge international fees.
With facetime I see a new business (actually old business) emerging. In a few months user will be able to call expensive 1800 numbers to get phone XXX in a new interactive way. You will be able to see the lady you are talking to in a way which I can’t write in the internet about.


- Posted using My iPad

Location:County Road 587,Tampa,United States