At the point when Steve Jobs first reported FaceTime for the iPhone 4 out of 2010, he said in addition to the fact that it was based on open standards, however that Apple would be releasing the FaceTime convention itself as an open standard. That would enable outsiders to make FaceTime clients for Android, Windows, BlackBerry, or whatever other stage. Presently, after 4 years, there’s still not a single open standard release to be seen, a great deal less cross-stage FaceTime clients. So, what was the deal?
The easiest, simplest clarification is that Apple has reneged on Steve Jobs’ promise to release the FaceTime convention as an open standard. That FaceTime for PC Download demonstrated excessively profitable, making it impossible to them as a restrictive usage thus they changed their plans, and it’s a simple as that. Anything is unquestionably possible, in spite of the fact that my understanding is that the reason is more entangled, and significantly all the more rankling.
In August of 2010, approximately 2 months after the iPhone 4 was declared, Apple was sued by a patent holding organization named VirnetX over a «strategy for establishing secure correspondence interface between computers of virtual private system». Apple refused to settle, so they went to court. VirnetX kept including services, including FaceTime, and devices, including the iPhone 4s and iPhone 5 to the suit. In 2012, Apple lost to the tune of $368 million. That won’t not sound like a ton of cash to an organization like Apple with over a hundred billion in the bank, however Apple was also set to pay millions more in continuous royalties to VirnetX for a service they were essentially giving endlessly for nothing.
Apple hasn’t abandoned FaceTime. Just the opposite. They reported FaceTime Audio as a major aspect of iOS 7 and keep on actively advertise it, releasing a FaceTime consistently business just last summer. While still keeping up they didn’t encroach on any VirnetX patents, Apple started re-architecting FaceTime to experience hand-off servers and, subsequently, work around the patent.
The FaceTime case is still continuous, VirnetX still believes Apple is encroaching on their patents when all is said in done, as of late including the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPad Air, and Retina iPad little to the suit.
How Apple initially envisioned outsider FaceTime implementations working was never disclosed. It would seem that Apple would need to deal with gadget distinguishing proof, or make a system that could deal with both Apple-recognized and outsider recognized devices. What’s sure is that Apple never anticipated that would need to run all FaceTime calls through their own servers. Apple, historically, doesn’t exceed expectations at web services, and it’s undoubtedly a strain on their resources.
Including Android users under this model, where they’d need to experience Apple’s transfer servers, is probably a non-starter. Were some other organization willing a ready to use their own transfer servers, and ready to tie into Apple system, they’d still be subject to the same prosecution from VirnetX, who has previously sued Microsoft, Cisco, and numerous others.
I’d especially love to see FaceTime for Android, FaceTime for Windows, even FaceTime for BlackBerry and Linux. (I’d also still love to see FaceTime converged with iMessage. Given the patent trolling, given at that point transfer servers, and given the truth of the world we live in, I just don’t think we will, and surely no time soon.