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Do you guys think Antennagate stole spotlight from a potential Facetime "explosion"?

B

Bobby Corwen

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jul 16, 2010
2,723
474
The concept of video chat makes a lot of people kind of interested but also kind of worried. Not everyone has acting skills or speech skills and frankly, it gives people anxiety to perform a video chat. (Not all of us are iJustine lol).

What it would take for Facetime to really take off is for it to be considered cool and trendy and to give the general populace the feeling that "everyone is doing it". Then i feel there could be a ground-swell of usage and maybe people could over time start using it habitually.

But all this antenna stuff has reached such a critical mass that if you type iPhone 4 in google all the articles will be antenna related. Everyone, instead of swooning over the iPhone 4, asks me if it has reception problems. That seems to be its claim to fame.

I have a feeling this might have killed some of the spark for Facetime and its potential to phaze into mainstream practice. Nobody talks about Facetime or the Retina display. Only about the antenna.
 
I think it will be a residual effect when more and more people get FaceTime enabled phone. I think about a year from now it will be huge.
 
No. I think that facetime is very awkward. I have an iPhone 4, love it, but would never use FaceTime except to have other people try it. Texting is the way of the future, not video chat.
 
I think ironically the back camera is going to be more important with this. Showing people what your looking at has huge practical benefits.
 
niuniu said:
Facetime is just crappy video chat that people don't use - been around for over 6 or 7 years now already. There will be no 'explosion'.
Click to expand...

Obviously via Apple's massive built-in core customer base it finally has its first shot at going relatively mainstream. At least for people that don't have crooked or asymmetrical facial features or those that are just plain shy.
 
niuniu said:
Facetime is just crappy video chat that people don't use - been around for over 6 or 7 years now already. There will be no 'explosion'.
Click to expand...

The problem with video chat was that not very many people had it, which meant you never really thought about it beyond it being a novelty. 1 or 2 years from now when it's built into 2 or 3 generations of iPhones as well as other manufacturers phones, you will be more likely to use it and the more you use it the more you will think about it and remember to use the feature when situations present themselves.
 
s8film40 said:
The problem with video chat was that not very many people had it, which meant you never really thought about it beyond it being a novelty. 1 or 2 years from now when it's built into 2 or 3 generations of iPhones as well as other manufacturers phones, you will be more likely to use it and the more you use it the more you will think about it and remember to use the feature when situations present themselves.
Click to expand...

'Everyone' in Europe and Asia has had video chat for over 6 years. It's common as muck.
 
niuniu said:
'Everyone' in Europe and Asia has had video chat for over 6 years. It's common as muck.
Click to expand...

Yes we know you guys have had it and everyone from the UK says its a waste of time.

But still....

What if things change..
 
niuniu said:
'Everyone' in Europe and Asia has had video chat for over 6 years. It's common as muck.
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with it. Do they all interact with each other and what is involved in initiating it.

To me the big changing factors that will make FaceTime usable is that it works seamlessly your on a call and say wow look at this and just hit a button and your video chatting.
 
I know Amtennagate stole any spoltight that could potentially been turned toward the Droid X release...
Almost by design....
 
appleguy123 said:
No. I think that facetime is very awkward. I have an iPhone 4, love it, but would never use FaceTime except to have other people try it. Texting is the way of the future, not video chat.
Click to expand...

I love Facetime, I use it all the time with my GF, and my family and is the best, I feel like texting is so outdated by now, I can't wait until i can do it anywhere over public wireless network. =)

I live in Atlanta where Sprint 4G network is actually pretty good, we are considering getting a Overdrive unit just so we can Facetime (and also have out laptops enable anywhere) (she is all over town most the time it wouldn't be much of an issue if we both are at the office most the day).
 
Bobby Corwen said:
Nobody talks about Facetime or the Retina display. Only about the antenna.
Click to expand...

What happened to all those posts/threads about shattered iP4s? They've disappeared into thin air as well.

Not to worry because in the coming weeks, it'll stop being an issue because everybody knows there's no design flaw or defect, just a bad batch of iPhones and crappy at&t reception.

However, Facetime was never a huge thing from the beginning because of the wifi requirement.

klrobinson999 said:
I know Amtennagate stole any spoltight that could potentially been turned toward the Droid X release...
Almost by design....
Click to expand...

Very true.
 
s8film40 said:
I'm not familiar with it. Do they all interact with each other and what is involved in initiating it.

To me the big changing factors that will make FaceTime usable is that it works seamlessly your on a call and say wow look at this and just hit a button and your video chatting.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's just the same as making a call. Say you select a contact, you can then press call/video call/text/email

Or you can go to call, then hit another button for video. It's really simple stuff, and I think nearly any phone with a camera in our territory, ie Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericssion etc has it. It's just no longer advertised because.. well, it uses data which costs money, and more to the point, it just wasn't popularly used (though we were impressed in the early 2000s when it first came out).

Maybe the NA market will really love it.. I just.. don't think so because we didn't, but who knows. Another problem, although it will be fixed, is that Facetime is wifi only for now.. that's going to really hurt. As the most exciting places to use video chat are in interesting places without wifi that you want to show to people.
 
Until Facetime is usable over the 3G network it pretty much posses no real benefit over using your computer's webcam.
 
The problem right now is that face time only works on WIFI. The examples they show in the commercials can't be done. I'm not aware of any hospital maternity wards that have WIFI. Facetime might get more popular when and if it ever can be used on 3G.
 
Yes, FT has been eclipsed by antennagate. But my mom loves FT so much, that I have to call her and immediately say, "No, mom. No Face Time today. I'm just calling to say hello."

For Apple, this too shall pass. Companies have taken harder hits. Ask Tylenol or Toyota, and this isn't a life and death issue. It's the athletic star who gets the hottest chick having having a crippling accident while the losers point and laugh because they couldn't compete were it not for his injuries.

Now that Steve has spoken, and I've looked at the Droid dinner tray-sized phones, I am done. I'm happy with my iP4, and will patiently wait for improvements.
 
niuniu said:
Facetime is just crappy video chat that people don't use - been around for over 6 or 7 years now already. There will be no 'explosion'.
Click to expand...
No offence but that's just not right. :cool:

People don't use 3G video calls because the networks charge a lot for them, and the quality is bad. Facetime is effectively free (from home/work/even MacDonalds) and the quality is pretty stellar. I've used it quite a bit in the three weeks I've had my phone. Admittedly I only know two people with iPhone 4s, but once there are more devices that support it, and especially once you can use it to video-chat to desktop/laptop computers (virtually all have built in web cams) I think it will take off.

It is a huge benefit over a built-in webcam if you have the option. I can walk around the house, and switch to the back camera to show the other person what I'm seeing. However, given that not everyone is going to have an iPhone 4 in the near future, it would really be handy if you could FaceTime to people who are stuck with the built-n webcam on their computer.

I don't buy the need for 3G particularly.
1) All networks are moving towards capped data usage
2) We get BT Openzone/Cloud wifi for free in a surprisingly large number of places (railway stations, shopping centres etc)
 
phaggard said:
The problem right now is that face time only works on WIFI. The examples they show in the commercials can't be done. I'm not aware of any hospital maternity wards that have WIFI. Facetime might get more popular when and if it ever can be used on 3G.
Click to expand...

Ultrasounds are typically done in doctor's office, not hospital maternity wards. I'm sure a number of doctor's offices have wifi.
 
hurriance said:
Until Facetime is usable over the 3G network it pretty much posses no real benefit over using your computer's webcam.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. I have never had a web cam on my desktop. I have a MBP with one bult-in, and communicated that way wi one person one time. It forces you to be static unless you are lugging a laptop around.

With FT, non tech-savvy people can press a couple of buttons, connect and walk around with ease.

Would it be ideal on 3G? Absolutely! But for now, it's an option. It could not be an option, then a competing phone would offer it, and everyone would say Apple dropped the ball.
 
niuniu said:
Yeah it's just the same as making a call. Say you select a contact, you can then press call/video call/text/email

Or you can go to call, then hit another button for video. It's really simple stuff, and I think nearly any phone with a camera in our territory, ie Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericssion etc has it. It's just no longer advertised because.. well, it uses data which costs money, and more to the point, it just wasn't popularly used (though we were impressed in the early 2000s when it first came out).

Maybe the NA market will really love it.. I just.. don't think so because we didn't, but who knows. Another problem, although it will be fixed, is that Facetime is wifi only for now.. that's going to really hurt. As the most exciting places to use video chat are in interesting places without wifi that you want to show to people.
Click to expand...

I don't think of data as an issue, I have unlimited and even someone on a 2GB plan wouldn't have to worry. I guess someone on 200MB might need to be a little more conservative. Yes it will need to work with 3G I'm sure it will though soon.
 
there are a helluva lot more webcams out there than ip4s, and its not like video chat is that popular. what makes anyone think facetime will b more than a "hmm that's neat" feature? The restrictions pretty much kill it.
 
The top future advancements that will push this forward will probably be:

iPhone to laptop connectivity via iChat.

iPhone to laptop for all messengers such as MSN, Yahoo for non Apple users.

iPhone to iPhone via 3G/4G

iPhone to Landline video phones such as what ACN is trying to push etc.

iPhone to other video phones.

iPhone to iPad? iPad to Laptop?
 
The facetime i4 to i4 only seems to have hurt it. If it were i4 to any webcam, I think it would've been a success..
 
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