15 June 2008

Why video calling hasn't made
the telecoms companies rich

Making a phone call and being able to see each other using the phone's screen has been available for a years now.

Thanks to the small VGA camera built into the front of the phone, it is possible to look at, and talk to another person equipped with the appropriate handset connected to the same network.

Sounds wonderful but unfortunately, it seems that hardly anyone is interested in making a video call with their mobile phone.

There are plenty of reasons for this lack of success, and also plenty of reasons why it might not be the disaster for the mobile industry that it might at first appear to be. Well, in my personal opinion, video calls aren’t that successful because we all use the phone primarily for lying LOL and it is much harder to tell a lie when you’re being watched :]

Nokia's Nseries VP thinks that the problem is in fact that most people have decided that the view of themselves captured by mobile phones "isn't very flattering".

Speaking at the S60 Summit in Barcelona today, Ukko Lappalainen, the VP Category Manager for Nokia's Nseries, claimed that users "aren't interested" in video-calling, mainly because they find the angle a handset must be held at for the best quality video-call "isn't very flattering".

He went on to say that when people take photos, it's generally from a higher angle, looking down on the person, as it makes for a better photo, and that the location of a webcam on a laptop or PC monitor is always on the top, for the same reason. Users want to look good when they video-call, which is why the function never really took off when it was introduced to the market in 2005, Lappalainen announced to the 500 or so audience members at the Summit.

After Lappalainen grasped at straws over the lack of public interest in the service, I asked Sari Ståhlberg, who is the Director of Product and Technology Marketing, about his claim. She was quick to repair any damage Lappalainen made by suggesting we're all vain, saying the technology "hit the market too early, maybe it will still be a success", and that at the time "there wasn't enough support from carriers", with the high-price of video-calls being an important factor for customers.

"The marketing push wasn't big enough", Ståhlberg stated, saying that most Nseries handsets have cameras located on both the front and back of the unit, and that future models will continue to have them, so she "wouldn't count it out for the future".