FaceTime and Skype Should Be Compatible
By
Staten Island, NY Posted: 2/7/2015 1:00:00 AM
Why can't we all just get along?
For many people, the first time they ever saw a video phone was in the 1968 classic "2001, A Space Odyssey". At that time, the technology itself wasn't too complex, so it was conceivable that video phones would be common by 2001.
Dozens of companies have released video phones over the past few decades. With each new video phone released, the manufacturers claimed the age of video phones was finally here. The trouble is, every one of them failed.
The biggest hurdle wasn't the technology itself. The problem was that a video phone was only useful if everyone you would like to call had one.
Fax machines had that problem at first. The first fax machine was worthless, because at that moment, there was nobody to send a fax to. Eventually as the number of people who owned fax machines increased, fax machines became more useful, creating an even bigger reason to buy one.
Based on that, you would think that video phones would've grown in popularity the same way, but it never happened. That's because unlike Fax machines, that could send and receive documents from any brand of fax in the world, every video phone maker decided to create their own propriety system. So if you bought a Panasonic video phone, you couldn't talk to somebody who uses an AT & T video phone.
The bottom line, every video phone failed because they weren't compatible with other brands.
Every day, millions of people use Apple's FaceTime and Skype to make video calls, but you can't use FaceTime to call somebody using Skype and vice versa. Sound familiar?
Now that SmartPhones and the Internet not only make video calling possible, but portable, but both products remain proprietary. Until anyone who wants to make a video call can reach anyone else in the world, regardless of what kind of device or software they have, we will still have to consider true video calling to be science fiction.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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