Apple's Facetime Technology - Essay Example

Running Head: Apple’s Facetime Apple’s Facetime Customer’s name: Institution: Customer’s Course Tutor’s Name 22nd May, 2013. History Facetime is commonly referred to as video telephony application software and its related protocols that have been developed by Apple so as to offer additional support to the mobile devices that are using iOS and also to offer support to the Macintosh computers using Mac OS X 10.6.6 or other higher versions. Facetime seems to be supported by almost all iOS devices and they usually have a forward facing camera that this is only limited to all is devices that have been manufactured since iPhone 4 as well as any Macintosh computer device which have been equipped with the camera and it they were formerly referred to as the isight camera (Axhausen, 2008). The Facetime application was announced by the then acting CEO of Apple Steve Jobs on 7th of June in the year 2010 during a speech at the worldwide developer’s conference and this was done in conjunction with iPhone 4. Also the support for the 4th generations of iPod touch that is the first lot of iPods touch to be developed with cameras was also done in conjunction with the release of Facetime device on 8th September the same year. The name Facetime was purchased from Facetime communications by Apple and then Facetime communications changed their name to Actiance Inc. The Facetime device of the Mac OS X computers was done on October the same year and this was during the Back to Mac event which was held on the Apple campus. On 24th February 2011, Facetime was listed in the Mac app store for a cost of $ 0.99. The company claimed that initially they had an intention of offering the application for free but they faced a number of hindrances from the various acts for example the Sarbanes-Oxley act of the year 2002. The act forbids them to provide a new feature which had not been advertised to an already sold product devoid of enduring arduous accounting standards. Irrespective of this, the free beta usually available for free download in almost all Apple's servers and in addition it is also included for free in the Mac OS X Lion (Kirkpatrick, 2011). The Facetime technology was developed by Apple and it was developed as being an open standard and this meant that in reality, the technology (Facetime) could be applied in a number of platforms and other manufacturers in the industry could also use the Facetime protocol. Nevertheless, in actuality, the technology is available to those users who were using products that have been manufactured by Apple. For one to be able to use the Facetime technology, one needs to have iPads 2, iPhone 4, Mac computer and iPod touch and one needs to be making contacts with a person with similar devices (Kirkpatrick, 2011). The technology was priced at a low price so as to ensure that almost all the Apple users were able to adopt the software and used for video chatting even if they are only supposed to communicate with other Mac users and devices. Facetime can be used irrespective of the device one wants to communicate to or call. In instances when one wants to make communication with someone using an iPhone one can just dial his/her phone number. In instances when one wants to call someone with an iPod touch, iPod and Mac computer one can use the email address of that individual. The bad or at times the good aspect about the technology is that when called, the call will ring on all your Mac devices. Thus in this case one is usually reachable irrespective of the place he is in though at time people do not want to be disturbed (Mason, 2008). In relation to this, an individual can alter the Facetime preferences so as to turn the feature off. A common feature in Facetime is the picture view. This feature enables one to see the exact features that the communication partner is seeing from your surroundings. Users can also be able to make use of the rear and front view cameras on one’s personal devices, and also easy changeovers better the portrait and landscape views. Facetime technology is also in support of highly defined video calls in instances when a user is using high definition cameras for example those that are up to 720p. Cultures surrounding Facetime technology There tend to be cultures that are surrounding the use of Facetime technologies in the modern world that we are living in. One of the major culture surrounding the application is that it can only be used and applied to the following devices: fourth generation iPod touch or the later, iPhone 4 or later, pads 2 and later, Mac OS X. Another common culture is related to the fact that the video calling availability solely depends on the carrier policies as well as the data charges that may be applied in the wireless networks (Kusek & Leonhard, 2005). Another common culture is the need to the email address as well as the phone number of the individuals that you want to call. Through this you will be able to reach them in an easier manner if they are in a place that is WI-Fi enabled. Another common culture surrounding it is that, it can only be used by Apple users that is from one Apple user to the user and this is so because the application have set as an open standard and thus limiting its usage by other companies or users with non-Apple products. One of the major impacts of Facetime is that it has attracted a great number of people in using video calling. This is solely based on the fact that the cameras tend to have high definitions and this enables the communicating individuals to see each other clearly. The other future impact of the culture is that it will in a way attract the greatest number of people to buying Apple devices which have the capability of accepting the applications (Mason, 2008). This will ultimately ensure that there are greeter sales and use of Apple products by the consumers all over the world. Another major impact of Facetime is that it is achieving some level of ubiquity. As compared to the other video calling facilities that are available in the global market, the application is almost offered for free and in a way the device has been able to bridge the gap that existed between video calling on the computer and also on the phone (Hanlon, 2001). Almost all the product that has been manufactured by Apple make great use of Facetime and this enables it to gain a great number of customers unlike their competitors in the market. Irrespective of the fact that the application needs to outdo the limitations that it faces in terms of interoperability so as to be able to attain full ubiquity, it is evident that it seems to be the leading player in the market. A future impact of Facetime is that it is changing the manner in which businesses operated. Most businesses are now taking advantage of the benefits that are offered by Facetime. Initially only large companies were able to afford the expensive systems that were used for video conferencing, but with the emergence of Facetime, video calling and conferencing have been easier than before and thus almost all companies can be able to afford them now (Hanlon, 2001). Future developments There exist a number of tensions as well as the conflicts that have either a positive or a negative impact on the further development of Apple. One of the major tensions is related to the wide usage of the device. Most people are of the opinion that Facetime is not as efficient as the earlier technologies and this is solely based on the fact that it does not store information for long periods of times. For example, the imessage tends to store an average of one hundred and twenty messages per user every month and Skype on the other hand takes 300,000,000 minutes of video as on a daily basis. When comparing the instant messages versus the video calls the ratio tends to be a long one. This does not seem to be the case for Facetime technology (Griffin, 2009). Another major hindrance is closely linked to the presence of the individual you want to communicate with. When one wants to communicate with another person it proves hard for one to know if the other person device is Facetime enabled or if the other individuals will be available so as to be able to receive your call. In reality video calls are not similar to the voice calls in that for voice calls one just needs to call and the other person to answer but the video calls their presence seems to be essential for presence tends to act as the dial tone and one also needs to ask the other person whether he can be bale to accept his video call at that particular time and the in instances when they are available they can be able to connect by the use of the video. Another hindrance is that fact that they acted as an island. Apple ought to have developed the technology in such a manner that the other technologies would be able to connect to it (Galloway, 2004). They ought to have offered the users and other companies the possibility to build certain gateway and through this company would have found it easy to add Facetime interfaces to their server’s gateways as well as to their SBC. The last hindrance is more related to how the call is made. The application currently operates in a manner in which for one to start a video call one has to start from the presence to IM. This needs to be made easier so as to enable users to start the call using the IM session. The application also needs to be upgraded so as to ensure that application developers can be able to initiate the Facetime calls from their own applications. All these tensions and hindrances needs to be addressed so as to assist in the further development of the application. This is solely based on the fact that the application seems to have a great potential of success of the right measures and standards are applied to it (Galloway, 2004). Conclusion Based on the discussion above, it is evident that Facetime seemed to be an efficient technology despite the hindrances that may harbor its future developments. Facetime seems to be among the revolutionary innovations of Apple. Irrespective of the fact that video calling has been there for some time now better applications which have video cameras and between certain special phones which have screens and cameras have been developed, Apple have made it easier for users to be able to do all this on portable devices. While the device does not seem to be fully portable, there needs to be measures so as to make it more portable. Also, as a company that is aiming at achieving success, they need to offer the users with an easy to use the video chatting device and they also need to offer similar standards for the device to be able to operate within a diverse range of operating systems. References Axhausen, K. &. (2008). “Coordinating Face-To-Face Meetings in Mobile Network Societies”. Information, Communication, & Society, pp. 640-658. Galloway, A. R. (2004). Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization, MIT Press. Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look at Communication Theory (7th Ed.). New York: McGrawHill. Hanlon, J. (2001). “Disembodied Inimacies: Identity and Relationship on the Internet”. Psychoanalytic Psychology, vol.18 no. 3, pp. 566-571. Kirkpatrick, D. (2011). The Facebook effect, Simon & Schuster, pp 1-17. Kusek, D., & Leonhard, G. (2005). The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution, Berkley Press. Mason, M. (2008). The Pirate"s dilemma, London: Penguin Books. Read More