Apple Saw Record Number of FaceTime Calls On Christmas

[MacRumors]

As people stayed away from travel and celebrated the holidays from their homes this December, Apple saw the highest volume of FaceTime calls ever on Christmas.

Apple CEO Tim Cook shared the tidbit during today's earnings call covering the first fiscal quarter of 2021, but he did not give specific numbers on how many FaceTime calls were placed.

Online video communication services like FaceTime and Zoom have seen major growth over the course of the last year as people aim to stay in touch with loved ones, friends, and coworkers while social distancing.

Cook also said that Apple saw a record number of device activations during the last week of the quarter as people received Apple products as gifts, and there were new retail records driven by the performance of the online Apple Store.

Article Link: Apple Saw Record Number of FaceTime Calls On Christmas

 

[Unity451]

Nevermind that fact that local, family owned businesses are closing left and right... I'm just happy to see Zoom and Facebook calls up.

 

[mcfrazieriv]

Wonder what percent of those calls weren't actually showing face.

 

[dannyyankou]

Considering we had to share Christmas with our sister over FaceTime because she was self-isolating, this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.

 

[Deliro]

Well cool that this technology exists for people that choose to live this way. I personally enjoyed a large family dinner.

 

[contacos]

Ignore my ignorance but how do they even know this? Privacy much?

 

[Apple_Robert]

How in the world is people sharing Christmas using FaceTime political?

 

[I7guy]

Ignore my ignorance but how do they even know this? Privacy much?

Probably a simple counter:

begin
if start_of_day then set facetime_calls = 0;
set facetime_calls = facetime_calls +1;
end;

 

[Apple_Robert]

Considering we had to share Christmas with our sister over FaceTime because she was self-isolating, this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.

We had to do the same. It is the first time that our family was not together for Christmas, and it felt terrible (and really odd).

 

[EdT]

When Steve Jobs introduced Face Time he said that they were working on a Windows/Android version as well. If they had actually released one I think Skype and Team Meetings and Zoom would all have a smaller market share just because Face Time would have had an instant market and a reason for Android and Windows users to select them instead. I don't know why Apple didn't release those versions. They were probably other software companies back then but none with the instant market that Apple had even 10 years ago. Now my family uses Zoom because of the number of Android and Windows users that can't use Face Time.

 

[Minxy]

I don't mean to be pedantic but... shouldn't the headline be 'Apple saw record number of FaceTime calls at Christmas' or 'On Christmas Day'?

I'm ready to be told i'm wrong!

​

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

It can’t be? Record number of video calls during a lockdown and pandemic. Shocking.

 

[Dpcanon]

I worked on Christmas Day(ICU nurse) and helped make a bunch of FaceTime and duo calls. With covid, we’re not allowing visitors so that was the only joy the the patients could have.

 

[Deliro]

We had to do the same. It is the first time that our family was not together for Christmas, and it felt terrible (and really odd).

It really shouldn't be political. I think when it gets that way is when mandates come along and then you have people shaming each other for which ever side their belief is. If someone wants to spend time with their family, do it. Assess the risk and make your choice. If you prefer to stay home because it feels too risky or you are in a category with a higher chance of complications, perhaps staying home is the best move for you.

Even me being neutral with my response will get someone from either side to shame me for not standing up for personal freedom enough (which I am) or that my actions is killing someones grandmother (which I am not). Time is finite..

 

[827538]

Love using FaceTime, as someone who lives in both the US and Europe it's fantastic for keeping in touch. FaceTime Audio is great too. Easy to avoid paying huge International call prices.

I was able to drive in Europe while talking to my wife over FaceTime audio via Bluetooth whilst she was in the states driving down the interstate while also using FaceTime audio via Bluetooth without any fees. Quality was excellent and the technology that allows us to do that is truly remarkable.

 

[alexandr]

saw or watched?)

 

[alexandr]

Nevermind that fact that local, family owned businesses are closing left and right... I'm just happy to see Zoom and Facebook calls up.

and there are people dying too!

 

[danielsutton]

As people stayed away from travel and celebrated the holidays from their homes this December, Apple saw the highest volume of FaceTime calls ever on Christmas.

Apple CEO Tim Cook shared the tidbit during today's earnings call covering the first fiscal quarter of 2021, but he did not give specific numbers on how many FaceTime calls were placed.

Online video communication services like FaceTime and Zoom have seen major growth over the course of the last year as people aim to stay in touch with loved ones, friends, and coworkers while social distancing.

Cook also said that Apple saw a record number of device activations during the last week of the quarter as people received Apple products as gifts, and there were new retail records driven by the performance of the online Apple Store.

Article Link: Apple Saw Record Number of FaceTime Calls On Christmas

Group FaceTime does not work as well as it should, I tried to do a group FaceTime call with my mother and some close family friends to celebrate the holidays and a reunion and there were so many audio and video issues that I could not use it, we switched to a Zoom call instead. Group FaceTime is supposed to support up to 32 people at one, so it was distressing to not have it work for us. FaceTime could be a very good and useful thing, Apple should make it more of a videoconferencing solution that includes screen sharing, file transfer, white boarding, breakout groups, and other features that the several video conferencing platforms support.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Ignore my ignorance but how do they even know this? Privacy much?

They know how many people are using FaceTime because they have to process all the connections into their servers. The private parts are the content of your conversations and who is connecting to the server, which is end to end encrypted. From Apple's end they would only know x millions of people are connected to their west coast server farm, for example.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

I don't mean to be pedantic but... shouldn't the headline be 'Apple saw record number of FaceTime calls at Christmas' or 'On Christmas Day'?

I'm ready to be told i'm wrong!

​

In parts of America (and some other dialects) on Christmas is used to mean on Chistmas day.

 

[amartinez1660]

Does FaceTime work alright for all of you? I have family and old acquaintances all over the place and for brothers/sisters in the US I use FaceTime, but for Canada close ones I use WhatsApp (FaceTime does bug out a lot) and for other close acquaintances in France I ended up using *gasp* Facebook Messenger... FaceTime was downright unusable while Messenger was super smooth, didn’t really like that being the case.

How in the world is people sharing Christmas using FaceTime political?

I wholeheartedly agree with you here and would be nice to bring a bit of a critique to MR. We could argue all day that EVERYTHING is political, fine, so I guess that “political” tag is about the theme being even more political than normal.

I now expect it all the time even for minor things, “Apple launched X gadget, accessory, etc -> Due to the political nature... blah blah blah” and I don’t know, I hate it, there’s censorship, limitations, etc moderation behind that tag. Also, where that X gadget happens to be launched geographically seems to have a big saying in whether the post is stamped political or not.

 

[Johnny907]

And Zoom saw a record number of Zoom calls on Christmas as well.
Yes, 2020 was the year of videoconference holidays.

 

[Khaleesi Kendall]

Well cool that this technology exists for people that choose to live this way. I personally enjoyed a large family dinner.

I’m all for people having the right to choose what they do with their lives but comments like this “bragging” about gathering in large settings is hilariously arrogant. I iS gOnE sHoW dEm.

 

[Kiimora]

Exactly the reason why Apple should up the ante on the camera front for all their new devices going forward

 

[spazzcat]

Ignore my ignorance but how do they even know this? Privacy much?

They can do it by simply monitoring how much bandwidth their servers are using...