In 2010, Steve Jobs first introduced FaceTime and promised it would become an open industry standard that could be used by Apple’s competitors — not just Apple. Well, eight years later and that still hasn’t happened. CNET’s Sean Hollister provides a theory as to why that is: There’s also an ongoing lawsuit to consider — as Ars Technica documented in 2013, Apple was forced to majorly change how FaceTime works to avoid infringing on the patents of a company called VirnetX. Instead of letting phones communicate directly with each other, Apple added “relay servers” to help the phones connect. Presumably, someone would have to pay for those servers, and/or figure out a way for them to talk to Google or Microsoft or other third-party servers if FaceTime were going to be truly open. But that doesn’t make a broken promise less frustrating. Particularly now that Apple could potentially fix annoying business video calls as well. A Skype-killing video chat service that worked on Mac, iOS *and* Windows, Android and the open web? That’s something I bet companies would be happy to pay for, too.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Should Apple Let Competitors Use FaceTime?