Q: Apple blocked Face Time in Middle East

I really feel that I been cheated from apple today , I was planning to buy 5 iPod touch from the US , but I found it here in Abu Dhabi , UAE in plug ins store, I bought 5 of them for me and my kids , and that cost me around $1800 , and was hoping to use Face time using wifi between and also with my son in the US, the box itself had a picture of the iPod with Face time icon on it , after I got them and registered them with iTunes I discovered that none of them has Face Time and that it was blocked , the box were sealed and came from Apple and not from any local company and it has nothing to do with i phone 4 or Etisalat the local phone company , I really felt I been cheated by Apple , it is not one but 5 of them , and face time was the main reason for buying them , the problem now the store does not allow return if it was open , Aplle did not mention anywhere on the box or in its web site that it will not include Face Time , it even put the icon on the box and that what made me buy them

I know not apple or the store will even care to know about this or try to correct that , I Think I lost about 2000 $ because of this from Apple ,
from Tomorrow I will never buy any product from Apple again , and I will cancel my i7 imac that I ordered from istyle store , I will never buy another application from apple store specially I have 5 ipads which i will never buy any software for them again

shame on you apple really shame on you

so as far as i understood the problem is related only to the device itself that comes from middle east
so in this case people prefers on us to buy it from uk or Singapore
is there another confirmation for the above please before deciding from where to buy

thanks

Your 'shame' should be directed at your governments restrictions on VOIP calling. If they can't watch what you're doing... they won't let you do it.

It is not our government problem. Apple knew the rules in middle east so they should have told the poor loyal customers that bought the product in it's launch. This was false advertising n it should not have happened.

its official,apple mentioned that the feature wont be available in specific countries,though not mention the reason why it wont be.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937
click on Middle east...

i believe this will create a big marketting problem for future apple products in the middle east,cos customers will now intentionally not buy it from the local stores and buy imports.

i know this is not the complete solution to this,but its an option that helps for now

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tango-video-calls/id372513032?mt=8

my sole purpose of purchasing an iphone from an authorized reseller was to get the benefits of the updates.

after purchasing my iphone4 from mobily and have it synced with my mac, i was prompted for the update, so i immediately did since updating would mean keeping my unit up-to-date with the latest software or fixes.

it is frustrating that facetime does not work on the updated version. what's the purpose of getting the update???

if i knew then what i know now, i would have just opted for a jailbroken unit.

i hope apple would try and fix this issue to benefit all iphone users on their next software update...whenever that maybe...i hope it is soon!

Sir,
I don't think that "culture" is an excuse to remove facetime feature from iPhone4, we in Middle East already have Video Calls!

And lot of ppl now are buying iphones from unauthorized sales to be abel to use facetime.

So please we need this feature...

I feel your pain, and I would miss facetime too.

But this is a user forum and you can moan till your face turns blue but no-one who matters hear you.
Contact Apple in your country directly.

And if the place you bought the ipod or iphone from advertises it as having facetime then you should have a case to get your money back.

There does appear to be laws, or restrictions on electronic products in your country.
Apple is just following these rules, or guidelines.

I confirm all the points that screeem pointed spcially point number 5

because i bought an iphone from UK and it had 4.0.1 firmware with facetime function working fine and I had few problems with the software so i restored it and I went looking to activate my facetime function i couldn't locate it in the settings.

so it doesn't matter if you upgrade or restore your iphone if your in the middle east the function will be removed and it has nothing to do with service provider or the regulation because my brother works for the regulation authority as a GSM engineer in the UAE and he confirmed that there was no request to block the function although VOIP is still not approved in the UAE.

so that points toward apple for being the cause of the function removal.

the amazing thing they didn't even bother to mention it or give a statement about the function removal in the middle east.

I am really very deceived regarding what Apple is announcing on the site and what we get when we buy a product.
I am traveling over the globe and French SIM card wit intertional roaming that is working everywhere. I just both an Iphone 4 in Saudi ( to replace my Iphone 3GS) hoping advanced new features as announced in the apple website. I put in it my french SIM (Orange). I have no Facetime button as described in the I phone4 announcement. I am curently in UAE - same issue no facetime.

Additonally Skype is not working for video call.

I am really deceived.

Download Tango from app store n this is better than FaceTime as it use 3G or wifi to do video calls so it is the best download it now before the aplication is block in middle east as it is a much better option than FaceTime

Let's Tango!! Visit http://install.tango.me to download the Tango app on your phone and we can video call to catch up right now!

Mystery cracked.
http://www.saudimac.com/2010/10/facetime-in-saudi-arabia-mystery-solved/

Hi there,

First want to calm you down for what you lost, but my opinion they worth and really the facetime make apple move up more and more and i would to explain the whole story And what i heared from the Apple employees coz i went out there for this issue coz i have a lot of friends live in middleast and they got involved in same stupid regulations and restrictions and i asked them and their reply was based on the middleast demands i mean the goverment belong to security procedures and they explained that sincerly coz i have IPAD and IPOD TOUCH too and i'm taking advantage of Facetime with others so here it's a backward Mentality upon you and sorry for that what i recommend to wait for any soloution or you can buy from any country else that enable this feature...

Best Regards

i have been told that if i take this phone outside UAE and do a restore, face time will be re-installed since if you are in UAE even though you have a foreign account, the server reconciles you are from UAE and removes the application. Has anyone tried this?