The state of the art in VOIP and videoconferencing on the Mac as well as the iPhone suggests that Apple will jump all over these technologies themselves in iPhone 2.0 due in June, according to Christian Zibreg at TGDaily on Wednesday. iChat for the iPhone and iPod touch could be the result.

In an opinion piece, Mr. Zibreg sized up the current possibilities for VOIP on the iPhone. While eBay/Skype has so far been silent on Skype for the iPhone, there are two other current alternatives: SHAPE commercial solution called IM+ for Skype. Another option is Jajah, which offers a Web-based callback solution.

In addition, there are some other solutions that run within Safari on the iPhone but offer limited capabilities. Hence the time may be right for Apple to once again bring long awaited coherence to the VOIP experience on the iPhone, according to Mr. Zibreg. The reason is, of course, Apple has already invested in the technology: iChat.

"With iChat running on an iPhone you would be able to place voice or video calls through Wi-Fi network to other iPhone users or iChat users on a Mac, effectively bridging desktop and mobile worlds," Mr. Zibreg wrote. "If Apple brings iChat to Windows, which will happen sooner than later anyway, VoIP/video calls could extend to potentially millions and millions iChat users on PCs. Oh, and let’s not forget that iChat on OS X is AIM-compatible right out of the box."

The author admits that it’s all speculation, but if true, it won’t be the first time Apple surprised the community by quietly putting the pieces into place until the whole springs forth as more than sum of the parts. iChat on an iPhone would be a killer app.