Can anyone tell me why I should use iChat instead of Skype or MSN Messenger?

Well if all your friends have macs and iChat accounts then iChat has probably the best video chat outside of commercial video conferencing. That’s the main big plus.

Personally not used it very much as not many people I know have Macs (sadly)

I use it because of the user friendly GUI

It’s also great since it supports Mobile Me, Jabber (Google Talk), AIM and Bonjour protocols

iChat’s video quality and clarity are amazing. Skype is OK, and is an option if you have a PC or want to talk to someone who has. MSN and Yahoo are too invasive of your system, and AIM is even worse. I haven’t tried Google video chat, but their IM and voice chat are very good.

In terms of messaging systems for OSX, I highly highly highly recommend using Adium. Its an aggregate messaging system that lets you upload your contacts from all your other messaging accounts – MSN, yahoo messenger, icq, google talk, etc.

This is what I use and its absolutely fantastic.

Take a look at www.adium.com

EDIT: i just re-read your question. I dont have a camera on my mac (still rocking a powerbook G4) so i cant comment on whether it has video compatability or not. Maybe someone else can comment on this?

Great! Thank you very much to all of you!
I really appreciate your help and brettvdb, you’re right, Adium is amazing!

@bvdshec17 Glad you like it :)

I have a couple of invites for a service called Orgoo. It’s great and it can add ALL of your IM accounts into one palce (Including iChat and Skype). You get your own new e-mail (@orgoo).com and you can SMS people for free. Also, you can even have video conferences and there’s nothing to install! PM me if your interested. : )

If its about video chatting… go with gtalk.
I tested skype, ichat, google talk.. and skype has bad video dropouts and crashed a lot. ichat has the worst audio quality i’ve ever heard.. you can’t make out what people say.
google talk just works for hours on end, has smooth video and clear audio.
and it’s web based so all your friends with google accounts can just install some drivers and you’re up and running.

@Inofaith , I’ve had crappy results with Skype when the intervening servers are busy. It is the only app I’ve used that lets me talk to my relatives with Macs from my PC, though. The quality seems to have improved in the last year or so.

I think google talk works across all platforms right?

Most people with PC laptops I know, don’t have webcam. So I haven’t had a chance to test it.