As a follow-up to Wednesday’s post about the Picturephone, I encourage you to read Frederic D. Schwarz’s piece in Invention & Technology magazine.
“Unlike car phones, Picturephone never had long lists of people waiting to sign up. And periodic attempts to revive the concept with modern technology have never taken off. AT&T’s color VideoPhone flopped in 1992, as did a wireless version launched in 2000. Even today, with transmission of voice and images over the Internet becoming routine, services that combine the two, while popular among homesick expatriates in Silicon Valley, remain a niche product at best.”
“Most people simply don’t want to see or be seen by the person they’re talking to….”
