3 CEO on Video Calls: Not a Future Trend

What does Kevin Russell, the current Chief of 3 mobile think about Apple’s FaceTime? He says that the technology will not catch on -at least, not for the next three years.

The man is making a stand regarding the emerging technology (if one can still categorize video calls as such). After all, video calls have been around for years but the technology has never really been adopted by mainstream users. While it is a novelty to catch up with distant family members or to have business conference held over the internet, video calls have mostly stayed out of the range needed functions for general smart phone owners –and even if the iPhone 4 makes the technology easier to access, it will not mean that we will see a significant rise in number of people will be using it.

Apple’s new front facing camera will certainly be used for video chatting purposes online, but as for the new FaceTime feature, Apple would have to convince network operators to be more generous with bandwidth, and even then, more users are not guaranteed.

The issue lies with the very nature of video calls –they are inconvenient. People need to set a time and place for video calls to be held; it would be impractical to be taking your morning jog while handling a video call at the same time. The only way to take a voice call is in knowing ahead of time that someone will call, and find a nice, safe comfortable place to sit down and chat. On the other hand, you can be running around town doing errands with a Bluetooth headset on your ear taking a regular voice call without any trouble.

Video calling is a novelty that moves in the opposite direction that smart phones are trying to go. While the technology can co-exist with the hardware, it is hard to see this becoming a new standard for many users.