# Why didn't the video phone become ubiquitous? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 27, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641 "2008-11-27T01:58:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/21 "2008-11-28T02:50:15Z")
> [@PopeJewish](#): > > you just hold it in front of you, basically. Most cell phone cameras have a “self view” option so you can take a picture of yourself while looking at the screen to see what the picture will be. The same camera is used in video calls, so you have to hold the phone the same way. The audio plays over speaker phone and the mic is usually strong enough to capture your voice if you speak at a normal volume. It’s just not practical, though. > > But yea, the video quality isn’t anything amazing, and is usually a bit jerky. Not too bad, though. My p906i has pretty decent quality and is not jerky at all when video calling. It was also crazy expensive but, hey, sometimes I need a “me present.” That being said, I hate doing it most times, for the same reason I dislike web cameras. I don’t really need to see the other person and s/he doesn’t need to see me. Web camera chats, oooo, you get to see the person typing on the keyboard/talking into crappy microphone. On a scale of “Orgy on a Roller Coaster” to “Watching Paint Dry”, it ranks somewhere around “Boiling Water.” Not only is it boring, but it often requires talking a bit louder than I normally do, which I don’t like doing because I have a fairly nosy neighbor. I have an ex who has the habit of calling me on video phone at all hours. I usually just hit the ignore button. ---
**Author:** ![CMiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@CMiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CMiller)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/22 "2008-11-28T07:19:19Z")
Every few years someone will come along to proclaim that _this time_ is different and the video phone will catch on. The latest example: > [@](#): > > Video calling, long anticipated by science fiction, is filtering into everyday use. And two demographic groups not particularly known for being high-tech are among the earliest adopters. > > In a way that even e-mailed photos never could, the Web cam promises to transcend both distance and the inability of toddlers to hold up their end of a phone conversation. > > Some grandparent enthusiasts say this latest form of virtual communication makes the actual separation harder. Others are so sustained by Web cam visits with services like Skype and iChat that they visit less in person. And no one quite knows what it means to a generation of 2-year-olds to have slightly pixelated versions of their grandparents as regular fixtures in their lives. [From here](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/us/27minicam.html?_r=1&em) ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/23 "2008-11-28T07:28:49Z")
From what I remember about the 1960s Bell System incarnation of the video phone, it was damned expensive. Besides the technical and social problems with the service, not many people were willing to spend that much money every month for a service of questionable value. ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/24 "2008-11-28T11:22:53Z")
[quote=“1920s Style “Death Ray”, post:4, topic:474641”] There was a similar thread recently. Like you say the technology is there, and there _are_ people who regularly use video calling from their cell phones, not to mention the many people who use Skype and similar programs, but it doesn’t seem to be something people feel comfortable just doing. Whenever I want to video call with someone on Skype we normally arrange a time to do it, and it’s only with close family. [/QUOTE] We excitedly set up Skype when it first came out, so that my parents in England could talk to my kids in Japan, but I very quickly went off it when it gave my mother endless opportunity to nag about how messy my house was… Video phone, no thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/25 "2008-11-28T12:20:56Z")
> [@Hokkaido\_Brit](#): > > I very quickly went off it when it gave my mother endless opportunity to nag about how messy my house was… Video phone, no thank you! Easily fixed with an upgrade to the Motherboard. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/26 "2008-11-28T21:59:39Z")
Video phones and voice recognition are two Sci-Fi concepts that are unlikely to ever be implemented Sci-Fi style. The technology has been there for a long time, but outside of niche applications such as accessibility, nobody wants to talk to their appliances, typing will always be faster than dictation and there’s absolutely no damn point in having a video phone. We use video conferencing at work all the time because apparently that’s somehow helpful to our customers but it’s mind boggling how much time gets wasted on this. It has all the drawbacks of being in a room with someone without any of the benefits. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/27 "2008-11-29T15:14:29Z")
I’ve always assumed that the reason no one wants to talk to their appliances is that they inevitably don’t understand you as well as a real human. Anyways, I always compose my thoughts verbally first, and then type it, and then read it out loud to make sure it “sounds right”. I always feel that I lose something in the translation. Also, most people I know type a lot slower than they talk. At 80wpm, I’m about even. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/28 "2008-11-29T16:29:49Z")
Why do you need to see the other person, anyway? If they’re a relative or friend, you already know what they look like and if they’re some telemarketer or receptionist or whatever, why do you care what they look like? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/29 "2008-11-29T17:48:20Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Why do you need to see the other person, anyway? If they’re a relative or friend, you already know what they look like and if they’re some telemarketer or receptionist or whatever, why do you care what they look like? Because my daughter didn’t know what “Grandma” looked like. Video phones are more than just looking at the other person, depending on the software, the video phone can show all sorts of things like Grandma drawing pictures, Grandma’s pet cats, not to mention daughter’s dog who has mysteriously disappeared only to reappear at Grandma’s house. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/30 "2008-11-29T23:39:23Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Why do you need to see the other person, anyway? If they’re a relative or friend, you already know what they look like and if they’re some telemarketer or receptionist or whatever, why do you care what they look like? Phone sex would take on a whole 'nother dimension. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/31 "2008-11-29T23:45:31Z")
> [@Atomicktom](#): > > Phone sex would take on a whole 'nother dimension. Probably not for the better though. Cheetos and sweat pants come to mind. It is better if some things are just left to the imagination. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/32 "2008-11-30T00:29:08Z")
I don’t buy the idea that videophones haven’t taken off because audio is good enough. If that were the case, television would never have killed radio. I think video communication will become widespread, but right now we are very early in its development, both technically and socially. Technically, we are still some way from it being universal and taken for granted. We lack the necessary bandwidth and agreed upon standards. We’re still at the stage where we find the crude buffered Flash video of YouTube et al pretty cool. Until we get to the point where everybody, including non-geeks, can effortlessly communicate by video, I don’t think we can decide for sure whether it’s going to work. And socially, we have not established any kind of etiquette about what the people you are communicating with can and cannot expect to see of you during the call. The current model is to have a webcam stuck to the top of your screen, through which they see a grainy image of you sitting there throughout the entire communication. But perhaps things will develop so that, instead of a webcam, you have some kind of hand-held camera which you could switch on when you wanted to, for those occasions when it is easier or better to show rather than describe. And then you could switch the camera off and continue your conversation. No expectation that you would be personally on-screen during the call. With ground rules like that, I could see videophones becoming widely used. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/33 "2008-11-30T01:57:42Z")
I think eventually the younger generation will adapt to it. The problem with the video phone was it wasn’t cost effective. In other words for the cost it wasn’t worth the extra benefit. Now that you can do cheap (but not good, at least not good yet) video phoning through cell phones, people will use them more and more if they don’t add on to the cost of the cell phone. Then once people are hooked they won’t go back. Think about it, years ago people just took the phone off the hook so the phone won’t bug them. Now with cell phones, people have allowed themselves to become slaves to their parents, children or boyfriends etc etc, by demanding everyone carry a cell phone. So there’s no reason not to pick up. In church or court, simply text your answers. This phenomena crept up on people. So will the use of video phone. If they make it a free service people will use it and eventually it’ll be the norm. I see this in the locker room at my gym, you can over hear people talking and snapping pics and saying 'look at this lard ass." Or something like that. Or on the gym floor, look at tubby trying to exercise and the still pic goes through to who they’re talking about to whom they’re talking with. It’s only a small step to open video People didn’t reject the video phone because they didn’t like it, it was the COST versus the benefit that caused them to reject it. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/34 "2008-11-30T02:32:35Z")
(off-topic) > [@Markxxx](#): > > I see this in the locker room at my gym, you can over hear people talking and snapping pics and saying 'look at this lard ass." Or something like that. Or on the gym floor, look at tubby trying to exercise and the still pic goes through to who they’re talking about to whom they’re talking with. You’ve got to be kidding me. Please? How could people be so rude and cruel? (on topic) ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/35 "2008-11-30T02:35:47Z")
Its like that option from Boost Mobile where you can see “where your friends are at” [2006 Commercial Link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew94okDkCwU) I didn’t realize it was that long ago… I havn’t seen it advertised lately but then again I havn’t been paying attention. I for one would not want to have a a personal tracking device on me at all times for all my friends to see where I was. Not that I’d go anywhere that would obviously implicate me in something illegal or anything like that… I just like a bit of privacy without my tracking beacon on. ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/36 "2008-11-30T02:40:38Z")
I think of Spaceballs, when they get the call from Pizza the Hut calls, and Barf says he’s going to put the call on Audio, “That way they won’t see ya. (hits the video switch) Yello.” “Sorry, wrong switch…” ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/37 "2008-11-30T03:54:06Z")
> [@Savannah](#): > > How could people be so rude and cruel? Some guy did that to me in the locker room, I’d sit on him. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/38 "2008-11-30T07:05:19Z")
I got to try the videophones at the NY World’s Fair. Nothing special, I wasn’t surprised they never caught on. When I worked at Bell Labs we tried to sell some, in the early '90s, in fact we gave some away as a booth prize. These worked on regular phone lines, and the picture was awful. When I worked at Intel they were trying to sell this also, as a reason for people to buy more powerful PCs. I actually have used it over Skype to talk to my daughter in Germany, but we’ve taken to turning off the video most of the time, unless there is something worth looking at. I’ve done plenty of video conferences when I worked at AT&T, and they seldom added much. I even tried a video panel at an internal conference I ran, which didn’t work at all. What is useful is sharing presentations, which you can do without video. I think the big problem is that a good shared video requires a very good connection, and a cameraman, the way we see it on TV. Pointing a Webcam at yourself is pointless. (Anyhow, 50% of the people on a conference call are doing email during the parts that don’t interest them, so making it a video call would decrease productivity.) And video from a cell phone is really pointless - who wants a call done holding the camera in front of you? ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641/39 "2008-11-30T20:38:34Z")
We used conference room video sharing when I worked at Phoenix Technologies. The way it was set up made it look like our conference table was expanded into the video screen, so as you looked down the table you’d see other people, kind-of-sort-of like they were sitting at your table. Anyhow, if it kept travel expenses down, that was a bonus! And I heard a report on the radio today about environmentalist scientists who use a lot of jet fuel to travel to meet each other, and I was thinking how this could be useful for them also. They can share documents electronically, and “draw” on electronic whiteboards that share info, and talk in front of high quality cameras with screens positioned at conference tables. Less carbon footprint than boarding plans to 24 destinations per year (on average, per environmental scientist, according to the report I heard) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-video-phone-become-ubiquitous/474641.md?page=1)