“During his keynote speech at an Apple developer conference, Jobs unveiled his company’s latest instant-messaging software, iChat AV, along with a nifty cylindrical webcam called iSight… it was by far the most intriguing thing Jobs talked about all morning,” writes Erick Schonfeld for Business 2.0. “The folks who should be the most worried about this development are the phone companies. While video IM works only on broadband connections, voice IM is possible on a dial-up modem. As more people adopt broadband and the voice and video quality improves, instant messaging could become an increasingly appealing alternative. If I can talk to my friends and family for free using a souped-up computer, why would I ever pick up the phone?”
