After seeing the iPhone 4G on Engadget and the front facing camera that will be included, I started to think about what Apple intends as the future of the device. For the iPad Wifi+3G Apple has negotiated some great deals with cellphone networks. These are basically no contract data plans with no phone service (iPad is not a phone). This seems to be just one stepping stone away from, in my opinion, the ideal phone and [no] contract package. I’m sure if Apple were to ask the networks who would be willing to go this route, then all will begrudgingly say “me!”, just not to be left in the cold. Apple would not just throw a face-facing camera onto the iPhone without a careful strategy and a big “wow!” factor. These camera’s are nothing new, but nobody has done anything big with them yet, and Apple always does something big, or at least cool. My guess, and that’s all it is, is that iChat, which Apple has not focused on for some time, will be Apple’s next big thing on the iPhone. They already have the software, have established that they could get the data plans, and now they have the camera. If they have been quietly upgrading iChat for sometime and are making it a central focus of iPhone 4G, then I think this is where we will see the next big jump in phone technology.