“In tandem with the launch of new MacBook Pros, Apple has brought FaceTime for Mac out of beta,” MacNN reports.
“The video calling utility is mainly available through the Mac App Store, where it costs 99 cents,” MacNN reports. “It does however come free on new MacBook Pros.”
MacNN reports, “The primary improvement in the v1.0 app is support for 720p video calling.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Accounting requirement.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Apple will now own the Video Conferencing market and the enterprise will adopt FaceTime without any hesitation because it’s compliance across all Apple products and iOS devices is a huge plus and money saver.
It won’t own the Video Conferencing market unless it ships a Windows Version of Facetime. Like it or not, it will need to have cross-platform versions to gain mass-market acceptance… and compete with the entrenched Skype.
It won’t own the market until it makes a cross-platform version. It needs a Windows version of FaceTime for the consumer market. People won’t switch from Skype or other Video-Conf software until that happens.
Quality is secondary (in this case) to functionality and mass acceptance.
Apple’s timing is absolutely flawless. Sell this little program for a buck just when FT is being released on the iPad2.
perhaps if it comes free with the new laptops as the article says, it will also come for free with the ipad2
I’ll buy it /if/ it supports applescript
otherwise ill stick to the beta version
Just curious. This is live video calling. What’s to script? How do you script a phone call?
quite a bit actully:
if it supported using a mov file instead of the camera you could build an answering machine
if it supported some way to share clipboards you could do all kinds of neat things
also, ichat was scriptable
Um…the question was about “live”
and the answer was
“if it supported some way to share clipboards you could do all kinds of neat things”
and by this I also mean commands to display a picture rather then what’s currently in front of the camera, or send a document or a url
ichat was for “live” chatting too and it was scriptable why can’t face time be?
Live answering machine – ingeneous!
Script
Me: Hello?
Her: Hi, handsome. Busy tonight?
Me: I dunno. I have to see if any better offers come in.
Her: Well, I’ll be waiting for you. If you want ANYTHING, just call…
Me: K. Bye.
I’m sorry, I like FaceTime – I really do – but it won’t succeed until it can be used over 3G without the need of a jailbreak.
Another example of Apple penny pinching. I’m sick of all this. Is Tim Cook running the show now? With Steve Jobs gone are the bean counters taking over?
This and the fiasco with 99¢ ringtones. How much does Apple make on this shit that it risks alienating its hardcore fans?
Get a grip.
Nah – It’s gonna be free with new macs. Hardcore fans are buying new macs. It’s fine. Also, nobody wants this.
You’re complaining about paying $.99 for an excellent little program that adds great functionality to your Mac’s existing capabilities? And then you accuse Apple of penny pinching? It looks to me like a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Maybe you would be more comfortable in the Android ecosystem with the other non-paying freeloaders. Apple is a business – they provide value for value.
Complain to your Congressmen about the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations. That’s the only reason Apple is charging owners of old Macs for it.
This happened before with some sort of WiFi update, Apple was charging a cheap upgrade fee for a software update for existing Airports while new Airport units got it free. People freaked (like you) and called them scoundrels, and then it came out that, it’s not that they wanted to, but they had to charge because of some accounting legality thing. I don’t know if this is the case here, but it smells like it. I’m sure Apple wants FaceTime to be everywhere, so it doesn’t make sense that they’d charge for it, unless for some reason they had to. And, the ringtones, I’m sure that 99¢ fee was because they don’t own the rights to the music, I’m sure that it was the record labels forcing the 99¢. Apple did make it so that you could import songs and export ringtones from Garageband for free, so Apple did provide a work around to the 99¢ ringtone fee, which was pretty cool.
So, before having a cow, try searching around and finding out why they’re charging. If you find out that they’re just charging to be dicks and not because they have to for some accounting reason, then by all means, be irritated.
(I hate being nickeled and dimed too, I feel like this should be something that would be a part of an OS update, which I just paid $4000+ when I bought my new MacPro and monitor. However, if this is something they have to charge for and are not trying to nickle and dime me, I’ll throw a bone at it. If they are charging just to be dicks, I’ll just not buy out of principle and spite. :p)
A reporter followed up – forget which site – and that’s Apple’s explanation. If Apple doesn’t charge, then they need to go back and restate their earnings, because they would need to set aside a portion of the Mac revenue for this future as-of-then-paid-for-but-not-yet-delivered capability. Sarbanes-Oxley included this rule so that companies wouldn’t be able to fraudulently overstate their revenue, since there was still a portion of the product to be developed and delivered.
Yeh get a grip dude it’s not a big deal
In case this was the only story you read about it, the 99 cents is a regulatory requirement. And even if it wasn’t – 99 cents? C’mon, if you own a Mac, you’ve already paid a premium price for you computing, so 99 cents is not going to alienate anyone. If you know your Apple history, you know this is not the first time government regs have required them to charge for an upgrade. Doesn’t look like their business has collapsed much to me.
Nope. Not paying 99 cents.
Good, I didn’t want to FT you anyways. 🙂
Seriously? It’s 99 cents. Let’s not forget the money that Apple spent developing this product.
iChat AV officially shipped with Panther (10.3). Anyone who was still on Jaguar (or Jag-wire, as Steve used to call it) could buy it for $29.95.
This time around, instead of $30, Apple is charging $1. And of course, right on cue, people will complain.
Well, enjoy that $4 dollar latte that you’ll have to buy over and over and over. That .99 cent app is such a ripoff! Lets get a grip on reality people…
I bought it and love it. I like how it opens up when someone tries to call. whereas, ichat and skype you need to have running and logged in
This may be free come on…
It IS free with new Macs. Just like iLife. Just like iChat AV was with the ‘new’ OS X Panther. Those who don’t have it (i.e. have old Macs) but want it, may spend $1, or wait until it’s time to refresh their own Mac.
Yes your right but my macbook are 4 months old.
@ballmer’s left nut – You’re complaining about paying $.99 for an excellent little program that adds great functionality to your Mac’s existing capabilities? And then you accuse Apple of penny pinching? It looks to me like a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Maybe you would be more comfortable in the Android ecosystem with the other non-paying freeloaders. Apple is a business – they provide value for value.
For a measly 99 cents? Damn right I am going to download it the moment I get home. Cannot believe the bitching I am hearing these days about Apple and over what? 99 frikken cents?
Before everyone goes mad, does your iSight support HD video? If not the there is no problem unless you are using an external HD Wedcam. The new MacBooks will get it because they have a Facetime HD camera built in. If you care that much about video calling and have an external HD camera then spending the cost of a small bar of chocolate isn’t the end of the world.
I just did a test with FT 1.0–my HD Logitech Quickcam Vision camera will send HD video over FT. Okay–it means having to have yet another peripheral plugged in, it still means that much more functionality for the 99 cents…
I called my mom on her iPhone 4 from my 2009 MBP. She said the image she was getting was fantastic. And absolutely no lag in the conference.
@ Ballmer’s left nut
It is one of the hokiest areas of accounting, and Apple’s given reason doesn’t surprise me one bit.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued EITF 08-1 (some people call this The Apple Rule) a little while back, and that injected some reason into the whole thing. But it didn’t cover every scenario.
If Ernst & Young, Apple’s auditors, decides that FaceTime adds “significant functionality” to existing software, they can basically force Apple to go back and restate all the earnings related to the devices which will be upgraded with the software. This is because Apple didn’t foresee offering FaceTime when they originally sold the software to consumers.
If Apple charges SOMETHING for it, then this issue becomes moot.
Why E&Y views FaceTime as significant, but not other updates, is unknown to me. But that is clearly what is going on here.
This gets a little more complicated since many of the devices were sold when Apple had a different auditor, KPMG, with sometimes very different opinions on this subject.
I don’t think Apple would have satisfied E&Y by charging $0.01 for the update, since they don’t typically charge that for other apps. It looks like Apple went with the lowest price they could charge that was typical, which is $0.99.
If you want some great reading on the subject (or if you want to push yourself closer to the edge of sanity), Google SOP 97-2 and enjoy.
How can Apple Inc. possibly keep producing great software like FaceTime when the damn Mac App Store steals $0.30 from every $0.99 sale Apple Inc. makes?
This 30% markup is just bullshit and it threatens software production big time.
please tell me that was sarcasm.
Apple owns and manages the Mac app store, so there is no 30 percent cut
yep, the app store has revealed just how many moronic a$$holes there truly are out there…. I mean there idiots that will go thru the effort to get a refund on a 99 cents app.
:p
you can get refunds!?!
that would have been nice to know as every morning I wake up and stare at my iphone thinking “why the @#$% did I buy another wallpaper app
A buck? Folks just get over yourselves. It’s a buck. I’ve paid three times that for really shit coffee at a football game. It’s less than Snickers bar in Australia.
It works really well, I’d like to see other phones work a deal with apple to get this program on the other phone types and pc as well.
OMFG!! MDN, can you just erase this entire thread? Spoiled jerks going on and on about 99 cents. Jeeze!!