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> The thing that makes this most ridiculous is (a) they don't have the same requirement of digital cameras in Japan and (b) 3rd party camera apps you download f

> The thing that makes this most ridiculous is (a) they don't have the same requirement of digital cameras in Japan and (b) 3rd party camera apps you download for phones are not required to make a sound. Pretty much every Japanese person downloads another camera app for exactly that reason. iPhone's bought in a lot of countries in the Middle East are equally ridiculous as they disable FaceTime (i.e. there is no FaceTime app). Even if you leave the Middle East, e.g. go to the UK and put a UK SIM in, FaceTime is still disabled. Same if you reformat even after doing that, so it's locked at the hardware level. Taking another iPhone to the Middle East works fine (although in most places it still won't actually work as the countries have internet level filtering in place). The funny thing is you can still download Skype from the App Store and use that without restrictions :)

andreyf 12y ago
First I'd heard of this, curious! What's the reasoning behind banning FaceTime?
- antihero 12y ago
  I'd hazard a guess that it's because Islam technically prohibits images of people's faces?
- schafx 12y ago
  Middle East countries treat phone and internet as a source of revenue rather than as fundamental business- entrepreneur-enabling infrastructure. So they're concerned that Facetime, maybe particularly Facetime audio, cannibalizes their mobile network call revenue. Yes, Skype and other alternatives may still be available, but Facetime is integrated into the iOS address book and pressing the "call with facetime" button is just as convenient as dialing a contact's phone number. I saw this crushingly-self-harmful behavior when I lived in the region and experienced expensive, slow Internet access. They also ban ISPs from buying bandwidth from anyone other than a massively-overpriced state monopoly pipe. If they treated mobile and internet as a key enabling infrastructure instead, the massive expansion in business would result in much higher tax revenue than the hit to the measly communications tolls. But they're either short-termist or have friends who personally profit from the telecom departments.
  - EGreg 12y ago
    Plain and simple: State capitalism runs the risk of cronyism, corruption, regulatory capture, etc. Singapore is a good example of state capitalism with relatively low levels of all of these.
  - Steko 12y ago
    I thought was disabled as a compromise because they refused to give those governments the ability to decrypt it. BBM had similar issues. http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/09/unconfirmed-saudi-arabia-apple-disable-facetime-national-security http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/09/unconfirmed-saudi-arabia-...

andreyf 12y ago

First I'd heard of this, curious! What's the reasoning behind banning FaceTime?

antihero 12y ago
I'd hazard a guess that it's because Islam technically prohibits images of people's faces?
schafx 12y ago
Middle East countries treat phone and internet as a source of revenue rather than as fundamental business- entrepreneur-enabling infrastructure. So they're concerned that Facetime, maybe particularly Facetime audio, cannibalizes their mobile network call revenue. Yes, Skype and other alternatives may still be available, but Facetime is integrated into the iOS address book and pressing the "call with facetime" button is just as convenient as dialing a contact's phone number. I saw this crushingly-self-harmful behavior when I lived in the region and experienced expensive, slow Internet access. They also ban ISPs from buying bandwidth from anyone other than a massively-overpriced state monopoly pipe. If they treated mobile and internet as a key enabling infrastructure instead, the massive expansion in business would result in much higher tax revenue than the hit to the measly communications tolls. But they're either short-termist or have friends who personally profit from the telecom departments.
- EGreg 12y ago
  Plain and simple: State capitalism runs the risk of cronyism, corruption, regulatory capture, etc. Singapore is a good example of state capitalism with relatively low levels of all of these.
- Steko 12y ago
  I thought was disabled as a compromise because they refused to give those governments the ability to decrypt it. BBM had similar issues. http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/09/unconfirmed-saudi-arabia-apple-disable-facetime-national-security http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/09/unconfirmed-saudi-arabia-...