iChat A/V vs. the others
The biggest difference between these chatting systems incorporating video and audio and that of Apple's is the others are trying to incorporate them into a communication model that is geared towards typing on a keyboard and reading responses as text on a screen. The end result, video and audio that's so awful, you immediately and instinctively go back to text chatting after a couple of minutes.
Apple's video chat system is completely different. They approach it from a real world point of view, that is, when you make a phone call to someone it's a one-on-one conversation. This is where Apple's choice is better for those who aren't used to online chatting and having multiple conversations going at once. You end up with a very clean and natural way of communicating with someone.
I believe Apple should port iChat A/V to Windows just for that reason alone. It's video and audio streaming is far superior than anything else out there. The only complaints you hear about it is that it doesn't support multiple sessions. Well there's a reason for that; bandwidth requirements.
It requires a broadband connection just to get a single session running smoothly. Throw in more than one session and the quality degrades. I do believe Apple should release (and charge for) a Pro version of iChat A/V that allows multiple sessions over a LAN, like say in a business setting where video conferencing is needed.
Anyway, there's nothing out there on any platform that can compare to the simplicity of iChat A/V and the quality... which brings me to the iSight camera.
I was chatting with a friend on Yahoo IM and had the webcam feature turned on (ugh, what a piece of crap that is). He actually commented on how nice the images were he was receiving from my camera and asked what kind of camera I had. That's how good the iSight is. He said they were the best he's seen from any other webcam.
One other point I wanted to make, I like the simplicity in both of these products; iChat A/V and the iSight. I'm sure there are a thousand different features and functions that could be bolted on to both of them, however, the elegance lies in their simplicity. The ability to do what you want without the hassles of figuring it out. Communicating with someone should never become a frustrating experience.
