Finally, A Market For Video Calls

from the took-'em-long-enough dept

When 3 UK launched their 3G service in 2003, they focused on how everyone would soon be making video phone calls, ignoring (a) that every attempt at video calls in the past has failed because most people simply don't see the appeal (b) that for video calls to make sense lots of other people need to be able to take and make video calls as well (see: effects, network) and (c) the phones they offered were huge and ugly, and people view mobile phones as a fashion accessory these days. It appears that, despite plenty of changes, 3 (this time, the Swedish version) still can't give up on the idea of mobile video calling and are now touting the fact that it's popular with deaf people who can use it to have sign language conversations. That's certainly an excellent use of video calling, but it seems like a much smaller market than those predictions 3 used to have.

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