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I am convinced they were ordered at some point to include cameras. They definitely drive up the cost of laptops, especially earlier on when webcams were more ex
by sixothree 6y ago
I am convinced they were ordered at some point to include cameras. They definitely drive up the cost of laptops, especially earlier on when webcams were more expensive. There were so few practical uses in the early days and so few people actually use them today that I am surprised few laptop manufacturers don't allow for security.
- dividedbyzero 6y agoFew people use them? I really doubt that, especially with so many people working from home these days.
- sixothree 6y agoI do calls with client teams multiple times per week. Developers, ops, project managers, etc. I would peg the number at 5%. I say 5% because on one recent call with 20 people there was one person using a camera. Additional of all the people I know - friends, family, parents, children, etc., only one of those people use the camera on their laptop. Some use facetime on their phone. But even for the mac users, it's a complete rarity.
- soulofmischief 6y agoI think cameras are generally expected in non-budget laptops just as they are in phones.
- astrange 6y agoUnfortunately, they're not even as good as phone front cameras because laptop screens are so thin. So people who do a lot of video chatting typically set up an external webcam or even a real camera in video mode.
- soulofmischief 6y agoDo you have statistics on this? And do they take into account the dichotomy of mostly-mobile and mostly-stationary users?
- astrange 6y agoThe camera quality is pretty obvious just by making Webex calls on a laptop. I don’t actually know if getting extra equipment is popular, just seen howto articles recently on dpreview. Fujifilm and Canon have added webcam support to their DSLRs though, which is interesting.
- soulofmischief 6y agoI don’t actually know if getting extra equipment is popular Then why did you make the claim? You're willing to say things without knowing their validity just for the sake of argument? This is just detracting from the conversation without actually adding anything useful.
- astrange 6y ago> You're willing to say things without knowing their validity just for the sake of argument? Yes. I believe this is the ideal way to post because it gives other people the pleasure of replying to you. It's a community service.