Q: Apple blocked Face Time in Middle East

and you should take the blame for that!

Ok.  Enough is enough.

You are officially off your rocker.

it was me who liked your comment.....you guys drove me crazy....

ok now I think everyone knows that apple didn't do anything to block the FT service, it's the mobile Service Provider it self who requested that because they already have the service on a fare basis ( not free like face time ) so if they enabled face time no one will use there service and everyone will use just face time.

in Saudi Arabia it's mobily SP, in UAE it's Etihad Etesalat, in Jordan it's Orange, but the thing that apple did and its wrong for us is enabling the providers to control a service we already bought an expansive device for it.

i bought mine from KSA and now am settling in Thailand and that didn't help at all because its not about the restore or location its about the IME number of the device as in middle east have a serial number that doesn't enable this service at all.

I bought an iPad 2 last year here in Kuwait and brought it to the Philippines last December. I gave it to my sister and she has been using FaceTime on it now she's in Canada. A weeks ago I bought an iphone 5 and and notice there is no FaceTime icon. If I bring the iPhone outside Kuwait will the FaceTime work just like my iPad?

for people who say that the government and carriers behind FACETIME block, so why the device brought from UK or US or whatever runs FACETIME? and now you can even run FACETIME through the 3-4G with iOS 6? if the carriers or government block it, it wouldn't work through the cellular! one more, carrier has nothing to do with iPod, so why no FACETIME on iPod touch or iPad wifi version?

The government requires that all iPhones sold in KSA or UAE have facetime permanently removed from them as a condition of sale.

If you don't like it, call up the government and complain. The alternative for Apple was to choose not to sell iPhones in those countries at all.

it is blocked in all middle east apart from Tunisia, so all governments required Apple to do so?! if the gov wants to block it, it would block it even on cellular and other services as well such as video calling, skype and BB video calling.

That is up to the government if they want to try to block all those other connections and some attempt to do so forcing people to use a VPN. But regardless they have told Apple they must permanently disable FaceTime on iOS devices sold in their country.

so all governments don't like it with Apple and they are ok with other? sounds not reasonable.

No, if you have an iOS device from another country and you use a VPN you can still get around it. They try to block all of these workarounds. And who said any of these governments were reasonable?

What would be reasonable about Apple blocking FaceTime in those countries on their own volition? What would they gain?

I mean it is not reasonable that all governments asked Apple to get facetime blocked in all middle East while allowing other to provide similar services and in the same time you still able to use the same service (which is blocked) in devices brought from abroad through these govs networks.

I don't know that all middle eastern countries have done so. And when possible they do try to block other services, in the KSA and UAE BB messenger is not included on their phones. They just don't have the technology yet to block everything.

Again, can you please provide an explanation why Apple would cripple FaceTime on iOS devices sold in those countries if they were not required to do so? What would they gain?

Then that's a problem with the governments involved, not Apple.

Again, you'll have to ask the governments involved; Apple has nothing to do with it.