iChat for iPhone Means VOIP Becoming an Option?

iChat may be coming with the next version of the iPhone and its OS.

This story is yet another spinoff of the recent iPhone 4G leak that gizmodo got their hands on. A front-facing camera and upgraded hardware would indeed allow the iPhone to make video+voice calls using iChat over the phone’s data connection. They suppose that this means a death-knell for the voice plans we all pay for on our phones, but I’m not so sure.

Don’t get me wrong, the end of a $50 monthly charge just to talk on your mobile phone using the non-network-straining voice bands is something I welcome, I just don’t think iChat will be the way this ends unless some things change.

First, user experiences with 2-way video and voice on the iPhone over a 3G connection will likely not be great – there’s just not enough real-world network bandwidth right now. As Steve Jobs is well known for not allowing a feature on one of his devices unless it has a polished user experience, I expect iChat video calls to be limited to wifi-only.

This isn’t to say that Skype won’t enable the feature as soon as possible, I just don’t think Apple will go that far just yet. This also isn’t to say that you won’t be able to use iChat voice communication over 3G (even if the quality of VOIP over 3G isn’t always great). But then again, how many people can you call with iChat? Other iChat users. You can’t use it to call your mom’s home phone line (yet).

In order for iChat to be a viable VOIP client it needs to be able to connect to the publicly switched telephone network (PSTN). It currently does not do this, and so I don’t expect iChat to take a major bite out of the communication application market share landscape until this happens. However, with Google getting into the VOIP space with Google Voice and their acquisition of Gizmo5, and Android running on more and more phones, Apple may want to head them off at the pass by leveraging iChat.

What does Apple need in order to compete with Google in this space? The answer is: hardware, software, and functionality. The hardware part is easy – the iPhone and possibly the iPad. The software could be iChat. The functionality is the ability to dial phone numbers.

Think about it: iPhones with iChat pre-installed as an app on OS4 and iChat accounts already created via iTunes with a billable credit card already attached to the account. It wouldn’t be difficult for Apple to offer a VOIP service which would allow you to tie a phone number in to your iChat account, and bill you for minutes and a service plan to call actual phone numbers.

The iPad is a great platform for this, or would be if it had a front-facing camera. Apple has already broken the 3G data-only subscription barrier with the telcos, which provides an interesting precedent for a data-only iPhone plan.

Now imagine iChat on your AppleTV, connected to your TV at home, connected through your broadband. The possibilities here are quite great.