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All opinions about FaceTime v Skype or cross platform compatibility put aside. I love FaceTime ads. They showcase people communicating naturally. Shrugs of shoulders, a tilt of their heads. Not a single person is finding it difficult to make their point, nor are they saying much of anything with words. It's a brilliant way to show how video phones bring us a step closer to natural communication. So, as an ad, it conveys the message well.

There's something about Apple ads that seem so neutral and innocuous, and by marketing standards, ambivalent (not withstanding the Designed in California ads). Whereas other mobile device ads seem obnoxious about how they tout their features. For example whenever Samsung puts in another piece of bloat ware (on a perfectly fine android phone), they feel the need to have teenagers berate older people for owning a phone that can't check email by sneezing One Direction songs into the mic in another anti-iPhone ad.

These are... peaceful.
 
If I only had cable I could see them more often! lol :rolleyes:

I guess I am a bit confused about the ads. Anyone who is somewhat up on tech knows about facetime. So they are trying to attract the older crowd and maybe very young spoiled kids?
 
Ummm, of course there's video calling on skype's iphone client, has been for years.
To reverse your argument, how is facetime even comparable (pre-ios7?) when it doesn't allow (proper) voice-only calls? Almost as silly as another previous comment that said that facetime on the iphone was the first native implementation of video calling on a mobile phone :)

Thank you, I stand corrected, I've never noticed it. For the record though, I never said or suggested that Facetime was better than Skype so what you're saying really doesn't apply towards me.

I will say this, to use Skype you have to have an understanding between you and the person you will be chatting with to keep their Skype app open, as does the desktop version as well.
Facetime is ready when you call anyone with an iPhone or a Mac so that's an easier solution.
 
Face time is kind of superfluous when you could just use skype.

The only time I've used Skype was early in the video chat era and in the Middle East. But now I either Face Time or Tango.

I don't know why someone would want to use a user name and password when they can just touch a name in the contacts and start chatting.
 
Even after 10+ years of knowing and experiencing what Apple does in the consumer electronics, we geeks still debate about who made this or that feature available first. At every turn, without fail. I still recall a debate about the first iPhone when many Nokia fans would say: 'iPhone is crap. Nokia could do this and many more things and it has been available for a few years'.
 
I came for the great ad, left reading about Skype and people trashing Apple, sometimes MacRumors feels like AndroidRumors.
 
What in the $*%# are you talking about?

Macs were NEVER anywhere near the #1 selling PCs, and they never advertised as such. Maybe #1 for education, but nothing else.

(Only from 1977 to 1980 when the Apple II was around, and there was no such thing as an IBM PC would Apple been the #1 selling PC. But after 1981, Apple was never best selling. It's been over 30 years since Apple had 'dominance')

I am not claiming Apple was #1, I am only reporting on the ads by Apple that claimed they where.

Yes, it means you think Apple is lying. Could be.
 
Really cool to see how FaceTime has given us more options to communicate without required plans from carriers.

Really interested to see how FaceTime Voice Only in iOS 7 will shape that even more, and how the carriers will respond.

I was wondering about that too. Face Time Audio quality is amazing, a lot more clear than just the typical cellphone call. I'm sure it's going to hit carrier's pockets when they see a decrease of international calls through their service.
 
Déjà vu? You betcha - but only in terms of a zealot claiming that Apple is the no. one PC maker. Apple never went above a 10% market share with computers. And while it was above that mark with smartphones, it's rapidly approaching the 10% threshold there as well (rendering Facetime quite useless at the same time - nine out of 10 users can't use it, so why bother? Skype can be installed on 95% of all handsets and works great).

As I replied to another, this is APPLE'S advertising campaign message, not mine.

At the time there was about 3x more PC makers then today, so it is plausible with that many mfg, Apple (being sole Mac PC), was #1.

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I was wondering about that too. Face Time Audio quality is amazing, a lot more clear than just the typical cellphone call. I'm sure it's going to hit carrier's pockets when they see a decrease of international calls through their service.

I think Local calls.

Then would not need Unlimited anymore. WiFi and FT voice.
 
For all android fans here: this is quite simple to understand. We iOS and Mac users (notice the the site you are reading) have BOTH options, Skype or FaceTime. We prefer FaceTime. You don't have FaceTime so it's understandable to defend your software of choice.
 
The losses is because of LOWER MARGINS.

The Mac marketshare is stagnating at around 6-7%, not below 5%.

So please stop trolling here.

Wikipedia - thank you, you just made my day :)

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5.2 mill more than last year with iPhone. 2.4 mill less iPads, and 200k less Macs.

Thats 2.6 million more devices.

He said more than EVER - not true. Apple sold more devices last year.
 
You don't need to get hysterical about this

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and it won't get much more simple when using caps lock ;)

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It's also very childish to have this endless "debate" about

...

That kind of arguments are called sophism and are hardly on-topic.

Wow. You must be such a joy to talk to in person.

I simply stated that FaceTime is easier, and it is. The person to whom you're calling must have installed the Skype app, you must launch the app. And the skype ids must be entered into that app at least the first time. That's at least 3 more steps than FaceTime. Thus, harder to use.

And, yes, I have used Skype. I found it harder to use. Additionally, more people I call have FaceTime on their phone than have Skype, so it's obvious what I'd use.

I'm not going to be 'that guy' who calls his friend with an iPhone and asks him to install Skype so we can chat in that. Really? With my Android friends, I would - but none of them use video calling right now, so it's not an issue.
 
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I like the ad. While some may call it "boring" or "lame" it probably hits home for many users of FaceTime. Pretty simple ad with people using FaceTime in realistic ways rather than an overly flashy or wannabe funny ad.

I also bet that virtual kiss is done a lot more than people want to admit.
 
so you're saying WP8 is harder to use than an iPhone? :)




I prefer the occasional dropped call over not being able to call anyone at all because literally nobody I know has an iPhone (or a Mac, for that matter).

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it is in pretty much every country except the US. I found it very funny to see the brands bash each-other on TV and billboards all over the place when I recently visited Florida
You don't know anybody that owns a Mac or an iPhone? You either live in a parallel universe or you need to get out more.
 
Face time is kind of superfluous when you could just use skype.

Well some people are not too good with smart phone. My wife and kids can call me via facetime with no additional log in, setup etc. It is not you can do it or not but how easy it can be done.
 
AT&T still sucks.

Now if only AT&T would get off of their behinds and make is so FaceTime is usable for those of us with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s life would be great. Most of the time I can't use FaceTime because for those of us locked into an AT&T contract we can only use FaceTime over WiFi.

Can't wait until October when my contract is done with that POS company.
 
It would have been a lot nicer and cleaner if there was no tag line at the end. You understand what is happening in the video from the start and that voice over just kills it.
 
He said more than EVER - not true. Apple sold more devices last year.

I don't have a math degree and you clearly don't either because apple sold more devices this past qtr then they did in the year ago qtr.
 
FaceTime is good and I use it a lot.. for those who have Apple devices of course, otherwise Facetime is kind of useless.

Otherwise, its back to Skype, which I have no problem with. Just as easy to use.

I'm waiting for the Facetime voice mail feature.. like Skype has. Surely this has to be coming soon?


And let's not forget that the iPhone was the very first phone to offer native videochats, so Apple gets the credit for kickstarting the whole mobile videochat revolution with FaceTime. I don't even know if any phones had a front facing camera before Apple invented FaceTime.

Nokia phones had front facing cameras pre 2007. I had one.

I believe video calling was popular in some parts of Asia, but just not in the West.
 
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I'll be honest and this is my opinion... But this is borderline sexist, "sex-sells" territory. Why are 80% of the people in this commercial attractive young women? (And all similar apple commercials recently.)

Also, what seems like the only guy in the ad is "afraid" of kissing his SO over Facetime? Because men should naturally be afraid of displaying any emotion, and when he does, awww how cute. /s

C'mon Apple, you're better than this.

And if was 80% men, you'd be saying it's sexist because Apple thinks that only men use their devices. Do you really want Apple counting the number of males, females, young people, old people, Blacks, Whites, Asians, etc., in their ads so that every group is represented exactly equally?

Also, what ads don't use attractive people? Almost all do, especially if they're appealing to a young audience.

"Sex-sells" is not necessarily sexist. It's sexist when it stereotypes people into predefined roles.

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Now if only AT&T would get off of their behinds and make is so FaceTime is usable for those of us with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s life would be great. Most of the time I can't use FaceTime because for those of us locked into an AT&T contract we can only use FaceTime over WiFi.

Can't wait until October when my contract is done with that POS company.

And with Verizon you can't be on the phone and do something else (like use the browser) at the same time. So it evens out. Why don't you just upgrade, especially if you have an unlimited data plan. You're not going to be able to maintain that if you switch carriers because the carriers will grandfather you if you're already with them, but not if you're switching or a new customer.
 
Its a winning argument, the most used phone. But not most used platform, I like it. The 1st scene looks like Caldera, Costa Rica.
 
Well, you can already do that on android via "hangouts" and Skype via group chat, and nobody uses it, so they probably don't need to bother.

I've "watched" a facetime conversation more than a few times, and it isn't magic. If everyone is on iphones, it works well, as long as you have a good connection. I've seen some really crappy "4G" facetime calls that were just pointless. 2spf and completely blurry with audio cutting out every 3-4 seconds isn't what I would call a "superior" experience.

I dont understand what you mean by no one uses it...

Teens use them to chat (ooVoo)
People use them for podcasts (Skype/Hangouts)
People use them to chat with relatives (Skype)
People use them for AMAs (Hangouts)
Students use them for projects (Skype)

Sorry if you use AT&T's LTE network and yes FaceTime does sometimes have issues (same with iMessage) but maybe if Apple improved it by adding more features like Skype/Hangouts it would be a better experience and more people would use it.

It's still no reason not to have it implemented, Apple would do a better job than Microsoft who filled the Skype app with ads.
 
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