10s of Million of FaceTime Devices

[fabian9]

Did anybody else notice Steve saying "we're going to ship 10s of million of FaceTime devices this year"?

Is it just me, or does it sounds like other devices apart from the iPhone 4 will be able to use it? Possibly the new iPod touch, future iPads, etc?

 

[unwittingFanboy]

He could have been talking about desktop compatibility... i mean why not.
As for the 10's of millions. They'll probably sell 10 million phone the next quarter

 

[colmaclean]

He could have been talking about desktop compatibility... i mean why not.
As for the 10's of millions. They'll probably sell 10 million phone the next quarter

Indeed. It doesn't make any sense to make this feature iPhone-specific, when Apple already supply a webcam with every laptop/iMac they sell and these devices all talk wifi.

Then again, this is Apple we're talking about. Maybe the "experience" just doesn't work for them...

 

[fabian9]

He could have been talking about desktop compatibility... i mean why not.
As for the 10's of millions. They'll probably sell 10 million phone the next quarter

I'm expecting them to sell more than 10 million iphones, but what left me wondering was that he didn't say "10s of millions of phones" but "FaceTime devices", which to me implies that there will be more than 1 kind of FaceTime device.

It would make sense to make phone calls to macbooks, etc. but then they don't have a phone number, so you'd need some way of "calling" them, without needing a buddy list.

 

[Cougarcat]

It would make sense to make phone calls to macbooks, etc. but then they don't have a phone number, so you'd need some way of "calling" them, without needing a buddy list.

What if...they added a new account to iChat, which is your iTunes Apple ID account (Or Mobile Me account, if they made it free). That's your Mac's "phone number," which you'd be able to call from your iPhone. Maybe a little speech bubble in the Contacts app next to your Mac friend's names will appear if they are online? They could even make it so that the Mobile Me facetime account is independent of Buddy Lists / iChat, so someone would be able to call you as long as you are on your mac.

Or, Apple could offer a dedicated iChat app with AIM/Jabber/Google chat, as well as Facetime. iChat evidence did appear in the iOS4 beta...

And if they did do this...iChat for Windows?

 

[itsjared]

Do you really think FaceTime will be addressed (?) by the phone number or will it be something like above, a MobileMe account? or AppleID?

 

[ChazUK]

I love the fact that Apple are going to open it up as an open standard.

This may end up on Android, Symbian, Linux, Windows (et;al) as well as Apple's devices.

 

[kas23]

Did anybody else notice Steve saying "we're going to ship 10s of million of FaceTime devices this year"?

Is it just me, or does it sounds like other devices apart from the iPhone 4 will be able to use it? Possibly the new iPod touch, future iPads, etc?

I believe new iDevices (Touch, iPad) may be introduced before the holiday season. "10s of millions" of FaceTime devices sounds like an aweful lot to be just referring to the new iPhone.

 

[griz]

While we are throwing out "what ifs". What if Apple bought facebook and it became the phone directory for facetime? Afterall, 500million people would instantly have a "phone number" to connect with someone they knew.
Then you wouldn't need a phone number.
Frankly, I think that making a phone call via a number is about as antiquated a concept as typing in an IP address. The phone system is long overdue for replacement by internet based systems using a DNS like structure or a directory where you can just use a name. And since Facebook has the largest internet based names directory in the world, it only makes sense to turn it into the next phone book.

 

[frosse]

I'm with OP, iPad instantly came to mind

 

[elephunkman]

Maybe they'll release an update 4.0.1 or something like that either soon or in September for other FaceTime compatible devices.