iChat, uChat, they don't chat with AIM

[ony_gosshamer]

Why did Apple decide to go only with AIM when making the iChat?

I would have thought they would have bought, transformed and 'appled' Fire. A lot of people aren't using (and aren't interested in using) AiM. What about MSN messenger, yahoo IM and ICQ?

[dricci]

What about MSN messenger, yahoo IM and ICQ?

Well, I'm sure Apple has special relations with AOL now, so they only chose AIM. AIM has the most users of any service, and I'm sure AOL is willing to let Apple tie into their features in the future like voice chat, and who knows, maybe video conferencing using MPEG-4.

ICQ wouldn't be as expandable (or as widly known) and Yahoo doesn't have as many users and Yahoo probably wasn't willing to let Apple do it. And MSN.. well, think about it.

You'll still be able to use Fire for your services, including AIM, but iChat is focused on AIM and bringing things like Address Book, e-mail, and instant communication and file transfer closer together.

[themacko]

I think AIM is perfect. Everyone I know who uses a chat program, uses AIM. A couple use MSN, but no one I know has an ICQ number or a Yahoo chat thing.

Although, these aren't really techie people, they're just my friends and people I've meet in classes. So I suppose, for the average user, AIM is probaly the first IM tool that comes to mind. I know it's my first (and only) choice.

[dricci]

Although, these aren't really techie people, they're just my friends and people I've meet in classes.

Exactly what it's aimed at. Apple knows more tech savvy people will know how to use different apps for different protocols, iChat just makes things easier for people who want to stay in touch with their AIM using friends (the majority of online users). And from what I've seen with iChat thus far, they've done a very good job at it.

[nkuvu]

I use ICQ almost exclusively. Just thought I'd share that tidbit of info...

[simX]

I used to use ICQ exclusively, until I found Proteus. God, what a lifesaving program. Nice simple interface, built in Cocoa, but very powerful. It is now my full-time IM client, and the only time I need to open the official ICQ or AIM clients are to file transfer. So now I'm on AIM and ICQ all the time.

iChat will never replace Proteus until it provides multi-IM service chatting. And since that's probably not going to happen in the near future, iChat will basically only serve as a replacement for those few times that I need to use the official AIM client – now I can just use iChat.

[zerorex]

I only recently got a yahoo id. The only reason I did is because my boss made me. Up untill about a month ago, me, my hole team, and almost everyone in the company used aim. But we partnered with Yahoo for our DSL service, and now everyone is being forced to switch to Yahoo Mesanger. The funny thing is, everyone still uses thier aim for their regular conversations. Yahoo has some niffty features, like their IMVironments where you can change the background of your chat window to the the lates movie or some such trash, but all in all, AIM is it. As much as I hate to admit it, they have the easyest client to use, and the most market penetration. I guess the sun really does shine on every dogs ass at least once...

[nkuvu]

Originally posted by simX
I used to use ICQ exclusively, until I found Proteus. God, what a lifesaving program. Nice simple interface, built in Cocoa, but very powerful. It is now my full-time IM client, and the only time I need to open the official ICQ or AIM clients are to file transfer. So now I'm on AIM and ICQ all the time.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm using Proteus also. Just because I'm using ICQ doesn't mean that everyone else is. I don't even have the official ICQ message thingy installed on my system.