Not a week goes by that I don’t see some form of Mobile iChat/iTablet rumor. Such has been the case for well over a year now. Many hoped that the iPhone 3GS would pack some form of the heavily sought after application as well as a front facing video camera for video calls. Truth of the matter is, while video calls are more popular in other parts of the world, here in the states the feature has failed to gain any real traction or even following.

Perhaps one potential iPhone 4.0/iTablet feature we can eye more closely is that of a mobile iChat and/or front facing video camera if subtle clues discovered by 9to5 Mac conclude. On the subject of 9to5 Mac, their ever persistent eyes recently noticed that typing in http://apple.com/ichatmobile no longer returns a “page not found” as it once did. Instead, curious geeks are now redirected to the iChat for OS X page.

As any die hard geek who spends countless hours searching around the web in such stealthy ways knows, a simple page not found to redirect isn’t a sign of anything really. Though it can easily be interpreted as such be eager gadget aficionados. I for one would love to see a mobile iChat come to the iPhone as a true in-house multi-messaging mecca app would do wonders for the platform while simultaneously killing 3rd party multi-chat apps’ profits.

One thing I’ve always wondered about though is what would a mobile iChat include — text and/or video? We’d all love to assume video chat w/ a front facing camera would be a given. But looking at AT&T’s pathetic excuse for a track record instantly decimates any chances of any “video” feature taking place over the airwaves. Then again, iPhone 4.0 could support and include the feature with AT&T subsequently blocking said feature much as they’ve done with tethering and up until September had done with MMS messaging.

So what’s your take? Is this whole http://apple.com/ichatmobile redirect a bigger sign of things to come or nothing but the hopes of dreams of too many red bull fueled geeks?

TiPB > 9to5 Mac