Apple has released the latest in their "Every Day" series of commercials, this time moving on to FaceTime. Following the theme of "Music Every Day" and "Photos Every Day", this latest spot shows different people in a variety of different situations connecting with their friends and family using FaceTime. Not Skype. The all important tagline; “Everyday, more people connect face to face on the iPhone than any other phone.”
Another bold statement from Apple, and not one that is necessarily untrue either. Speaking from personal experience, I can't recall many times in the last 12 months where I've seen anyone publicly video calling on anything other than an iPhone. There are obviously people who do – I'm one of them from time to time – but the overwhelming majority always seems to be using FaceTime. Is this because FaceTime is simple, and built into the phone just the same as text messaging is? Not forgetting of course that FaceTime is also available on the iPad and the Mac, too. On those other phones, video calling almost always requires the use of a third-party app, like Skype.
Video calling from mobile is still in the minority, however. It eats up your mobile data allowance and not your minutes, and if you're on a slow connection it's a pretty jarring experience. But, even though we've had Skype for a long time, and Skype users use it for specific reasons, FaceTime has definitely helped to take video calling into the mainstream.
What do you think? Do you like the ad? Do you use FaceTime much?
