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Comment by barefoot | Hacker News Reader

> The use case for the iPad’s camera is FaceTime, and for me and I’m likely in the minority here, FaceTime is a classic You-Gotta-See-This-Once feature. You demo it once and never use it again. The line I draw for the cameras is “it can’t be crap.”

Am I the only one that uses FaceTime on a regular basis?

I have family scattered all around the world and pretty much every call I get from them comes in as FaceTime. Most of my family has iPhones and it just works for them. The audio quality is great and it's so much better than a normal phone call. Does everyone else use Skype? Are your family members comfortable with using that?

I would love a very high definition front facing camera on the iPad 3 to compliment a possible retina display. I think that would make it a very compelling video conferencing device.

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I think there are a few problems with FaceTime.

First, there's a bit of a trend toward somewhat less interactive conversation. If text messages are rising in popularity as phone calls wane, it would also make sense that FaceTime wouldn't be the most popular. Plus, with FaceTime, you might not want to use it on a saturday at noon when you're still disheveled in your pyjamas.

Second, it only works with other Apple stuff right now. AT&T announced that they wanted to push for a video calling standard. I hope that the industry really coalesces. That will probably mean Google adopting FaceTime for Android handsets and Google Talk/Google+. Even if I have an iPhone, only one other member of my family has an Apple device. Many of my friends have PCs and Android handsets. That limits how important it can become for many people.

That said, my friend's grandmother loves it. She's too old to travel, but can see her grandchildren 4,000 miles away with it. It's really special for her.

Still, it will remain a bit more of a niche product since there isn't broad compatibility and, at least right now, there might be a stigma to using it when one doesn't feel put together.

Actually, Google Talk on Android already has a video chat feature that's great because: 1) It works over 3G 2) It works with anyone else on Google Talk who's online, regardless of what device they're on

All you have to do is open Google Talk (I have it running all the time anyway) and tap the camera button next to someone's contact.

I frequently use it to chat with my girlfriend or to show her something on the go, and it doesn't matter if she's on her Galaxy Nexus or her MBP at home.

Same here; I think this is classic "I don't use this feature, therefore nobody uses this feature."

I probably use FaceTime 1-2 hours a day every day.

FaceTime is of limited use for me because both sides have to be on wifi. I can never just reach for it first and expect them to answer, it's usually a phone call that migrates to FaceTime. It's still a bit annoying

However, I really appreciate how easy it works across the Apple ecosystem now that I have a toddler and live very far away from family. The grandparents love it (setting up Skype would be something they'd never do on their own).

As for video calling non-family? It's never even come up as a possibility.

Yes, I think vastly more people use Skype for this use case.

Also, Skype has more features. I often like to use Skype and share URLs, files, text messages. And the bugging thing about FaceTime is that you have to quit the App to go into messages to do that in iPad. Not with Skype. This usually means a dropped call.

I use it all the time with the people I know who have it.

That said, my positive experience with FaceTime has actually induced me to also start using Skype, so that I can reach more people.

Traveling over the last few months I've been shocked by the numbers of people using iPads as their primary camera when sightseeing, especially in China.

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