Ever since the 1960’s, we’ve been told that video phones are just around the corner. They’ve been available since then too. The only cost 4 times what a regular phone does, and they work well with that guy in Tempe who has the other one.
When I first saw CUSeeMe on dial-up in 1995, I knew that video phones would come, and they would come on the internet.
Now it would appear that two major Voice Over IP companies are going to offer Video Over IP. I think if anything is going to make video phones happen, this is it. The drag is that with Video Over IP, people don’t have dedicated hardware for it. With Vonage, they use the same phone people have always used, and it’s easy. With Video, the only hardware people really have is their computers. This will work fine for some, but others will hate it.
We’ll have to see where it goes, but I think this is a huge step.
