∞ Understanding the value of FaceTime

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When Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s video calling functionality as part of the iPhone 4, I wasn’t all that impressed. However, after last week I’ve had a change of heart.

Apple describes FaceTime like this: “With the tap of a button, you can wave hello to your kids, share a smile from across the globe, or watch your best friend laugh at your stories.” Honestly, I thought so what, it’s probably not something I’ll use much.

I didn’t even get that worked up watching the videos during Jobs’ keynote. They were poignant, heartfelt videos that got a reaction from most people. Not me.

However, last week my daughter went to Florida on vacation. This was her first real trip and her first away from her mother and I — a big trip in a lot of ways.

We stayed in touch texting each every day and then I thought about FaceTime. We gave it a try and it was everything that I think Jobs wanted it to be in his demo.

We talked about everything she was doing, how the trip was going and what she had left to do. She flipped the camera around and took me on a tour of her boyfriend’s family condo where she was staying, so I got an idea of her surroundings too.

FaceTime is most definitely a personal experience and one that you may only be able to appreciate after doing it yourself.


  • bab

    So why didn’t iChat catch on?
    I always thought that every grandparent would be using it.

    • Jim Dalrymple

      A lot of people do use iChat, but there is a big difference. Grandparents know how to use a phone and probably wouldn’t be as afraid of that as they are about using a computer to chat.

    • Robb Mitchell

      iChat caught on big time with us. We talk to family half way around the world on a weekly basis using iChat. It is one of those features that unless you use it you might think “so what” but it is absolutely amazing if you do use it. Look, I have a brother who is one of the last living people on earth who doesn’t own a mobile phone. His answer, “I never needed one in the past.” I promised him I’d put on his grave marker, “H.H.O.: He Held Out” I guess better tools is just a state of mind.

  • Angel T.

    I am eagerly awaiting my own and for Jay to get one so he and I can chat face-to-face too. :D

  • http://dhill.tumblr.com David

    I have to agree. When I first saw the FaceTime demo, I thought it was kinda cool, but probably nothing I would use. However, within a few weeks a friend who lives two hundred miles away got his iPhone 4 and we decided to give FaceTime a shot.
    It worked like a charm the first try. The first call was only a minute or two. The next day he called and wanted to show me a new motorcycle he had bought. We started a FaceTime call and he walked to his garage and we spent ten minutes looking at and talking about his bike. It was great.

    Since that day we have talked at least once a week using FaceTime, and a couple more of my friends and family now have iPhone 4′s, and we all talk regularly on FaceTime and it’s great fun.

    I’m really happy with my iPhone 4 and FaceTime has become one of the great little added features that makes me love the iPhone 4 even more.

  • http://debono.com.au Joe Debono

    …and then there’s Skype. I’ll be happy when I can use Skype with the camera on my iPhone 4.

    • Robb Mitchell

      I’m not excited about Skype on the iPhone4. Look, when Skype first came out it appeared to be groundbreaking technology in the IP to IP and IP to Phone realm. What happened? Well, eBay bought it. In the course of about a year, Skype went from being a revolutionary IP or “the next great thing” in computing and inexpensive mobile internet communications to being unfocused, lacking in customer support, confusing third-party plug-ins and eBay unsuccessfully milking it with premium services for a fee. It never made a transition to mobile devices with any success and founder Niklas Zennstrom walking way frustrated and ready to try new adventures. Then eBay went shopping for a customer to unload Skype. But that’s maybe the behinds the scenes of what became symptomatic of the troubles a lack of focus would cause us end users. Skype botched it third party “Extras” developers program. There was a 3-day period when the entire system went down for paid premium users. Bad software upgrades made hardware (cameras) incompatible, etc.

      This is precisely the issue and in some cases the big elephant in the room with iPhone Apps and Apps in general for android or Apple iPhones. A seemingly “next great thing” turns out to be not so great and threatens the viability of the platform when you can be high, high percentage certain that FaceTime, H.264, AAC, ePubs and these standards will be robustly supported well into the future. Skype does still have some proving to do in my mind. I’d love to see them succeed to the potential they set out when it appeared to be a revolution in IP technology but I’m not sure it has regained that vision since eBay had taken it over.

  • nebosuke

    Jim, you daughter really doesn’t look much like you there. Maybe it’s just the lighting, but you might consider a paternity test.

  • Mark Hernandez

    Now just wait until you can do FaceTime using an iPod Touch without having to have a contract with a carrier! I think we are about to witness something unexpected, and another Apple surprise.

  • Daniel Swanson

    Face Time could prove to be the most significant feature of the iPhone 4.

    In true Apple form, it’s a little ahead of its time, waiting for Wi Fi and wireless infrastructure to become more ubiquitous. But at least continuing strong demand for the phone may very well accelerate the demand for such via Face Time.

  • Doz

    Yes, I agree with your sentiments completely.

    (By the way, you need to brush up on your grammar. It’s not “her mother and I” in this case; rather it would be “her mother and me.”

  • Greg

    This article shows once again that Apple is able to give us products and services that we enjoy, but never knew we needed or wanted until we used them.

    All the pundits said the iPod will fail, then they said Apple was too late in entering the mobile phone market, then the iPad was ‘just a big iPod Touch with no real usefulness, and the list goes on and on.

    I use face time with my friends who have iPhone 4. But I too, long for the day when Skype is able to make use of the camera.

    There is a part of me that wonders if part of the use for that massive, new data center is to facilitate “high quality” video calling amongst millions of devices, among other things.

    There are too many short sighted people in the world who just can’t imagine the uses for new devices and services at first blush. Then, just as the author of this article found out, once you get it, you ‘get it’.