Prediction: Iphone 3G will have an IM and a VOIP component when it is released in a few days. It will be called "iChat", and it will be accompanied by new Mac and Windows iChat clients.

I predicted this a year ago when iPhone was first released, and it didn't happen. So here I go again under an assumption that sooner or later I have to be right. While Apple may soon clear the pathway in the iPhone API to allow Skype onto the iPhone platform, I suspect the damage will have already been done.... Apple will give its own iChat VOIP client a headstart.

This does not mean necessarily that iChat's voice feature will use the 3G cellular network. In fact, I think the voice and video features will be exclusively for WIFI connections. Nevertheless, this may well become a tough competitor for Skype. The IM component of iChat is already a solid match for Skype and very popular since it interconnects with both AIM and gTalk. Similarly, the video component of iChat will be a tough competitor in low bandwidth environments since it is a hosted service while Skype is pure p2P.

More speculation: The phone company (AT&T and others) should be very pleased with such a development (iChat). They can handle more traffic at the same price and with no increases to infrastructure. Origination and termination of calls for iPhones connected to WIFI will happen on the Internet rather than on a costly cellular structure.

As for the computer-based versions of iChat, I expect that the consumer will be able to pair the software client with an iPhone and its AT&T cellular contract. Imagine it. You have one phone number. It rings on both your iPhone and your computer. You can call out from either one interchangeably when you are on WIFI. You can intercom between them even if they are on opposite sides of the planet. And if you have more than one iPhone, your computer based iChat client will pair with with all those iPhones simultaneously, thereby eliminating every need for a hard-wired "telephone." Oh, and you can also do video, file transfer and IM all within an encrypted envelope... just like Skype.