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Comment by rfoo | Hacker News Reader

But hey it just can't be really compelling if it is Apple device only.

Yep, I'm guessing 90% or more of Fortune 500 companies use Windows computers. FaceTime will only run on MacOS / iOS devices, so even if it was a superior video chat product the exclusivity of the app is what kills it. Zoom, however, works on just about all devices.

Just had some coworkers complaining the other day in slack about use of RingCentral since its rebranded zoom but software won't run well on their linux dev machines! Zoom itself they have no issues with, unless other people join using the RingCentral client apparently.

tl;dr - yes, a compelling video chat software must run well on all employee devices for real success

FaceTime doesn't necessarily have to support only Apple devices:

Petition: Keep your promise to make FaceTime open source https://www.change.org/p/apple-inc-keep-your-promise-to-make...

Legal battle may be to blame for Apple breaking Steve Jobs’ FaceTime promise https://macdailynews.com/2018/06/07/legal-battle-may-be-to-b...

It doesn't have to be, though. Just like iMessage is hugely successful despite being limited to Apple devices, and even then widely differing in features and reliability, for example, between iOS and macOS.

A wonderful collaborative experience could just be a USP for the platform. FWIW, the now obsoleted iChat was way ahead of the curve compared to the current iteration of FaceTime in group settings, anyway.

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