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I don't think Bill was really predicting that iChat will be sold on Windows, rather just wondering aloud. Indeed, your assertion that there isn't a good reason for you to pay for iChat on Windows when AOL IM works fine, and what I take to be Bill's main points (quoted below) harmonize nicely in my view.

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Apple's attempt to turn Windows users into future Mac users by inundating them with Apple products, is now underway. ......

....... As I've said before, the whole thing makes no sense and is a colossal waste of time if Apple doesn't eventually figure out how to turn at least a small percentage of its newfound Windows-using customers into Mac users.
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They made iTunes because they *had* to because the Windows version of similar software was ugly (by their standards) and negated the elegance of the embedded software in the iPod which is a main selling point. It devalued the iPod itself.

If AOL IM works good enough to sell iSights without giving people a bad experience, that's good enough for Apple. If AOL IM isn't *quite* as good as iChat, well that's just what you get for being satisfied with a Windows box in the first place. If it makes you wish you had a Mac instead ..... Then that may just validate Bill's main points (about the need to entice Windows users to get Macs), answer the question of whether we'll see iChat for Windows (negatively), and prove your point as well. There is no reason that Apple must follow the iTunes "precedent". iSight for Windows doesn't necessarily entail iChat for Windows. But I'm not an AOL IM user and I'm taking your word for how good it is.

So perhaps there is no reason they can't sell iSights for PC's bundled with AOL IM if it is as good as you say. And especially now that it talks to iChat. Heck, just being able to chat with Mac users raises the cool factor, even if you don't have one! And increases the likelihood that your next PC will be a Mac, and Apple doesn't have to write Windows software. Pretend that you are Steve Jobs. It does make you smile doesn't it?

Mark

Actually, I don't know what you mean by "actually, no". And given the highly favorable reviews in the WSJ and other typically PC centric publications, I hadn't supposed that there was no advantage to an iSight. As I said, I am not a chatter, nor an evaluator of webcams so unless someone else weighs in with an evaluation of iSight vs other webcams I am not inclined to argue about that. But I am curious as to why it is that if Windows users have no interest in an iSight, then why was a USB hack available just days after the iSight's release?