Suprise suprise, video calling is a flop.

Samtheman1k

Samtheman1k

Samtheman1k

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Call me old fashioned, but a phone not for talking? I don't think I would ever use video calling, even if it was the same price as voice calls.

Video calling is not a service that is used by a lot of people," Vodafone's spokesperson admitted
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In practice, this means that Vodafone is no longer willing to put as much of its own cash into offsetting the price of each 3G handset it sells. Heavy subsidies don't make financial sense if people are simply not paying for enough extra services to justify it.
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I never understood the massive prices paid for 3G licenses. A 2/2.5G phone does everything I want it to do, and certainly won't paid the prices they are asking for for video calling.

Serious errors of judgement by the fat cats at Vodafone etc. Hmm, but bet they still get to keep their hefty bonuses!


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It'll take off but it is a big culture change for many people AND the calls are expensive.
In my view the market for it is definitely there - look how many use webcams to chat.
If the call prices were the same I think it would be used more. The other issue I guess is that unless the person you call has a 3g phone then it's all rather fruitless.
 
Not that surprising given the amount of complaining these companies have been doing about the 3G license fees they've had to pay. That led me to believe that the 3G wasn't as successful as the hype suggested.
 
3G sucks, its true. I would never use my phone for anything other than texting and talking, all that other stuff is crap, though chatrooms could be ok I guess. All this other bumpf like Camera and MP3 is nice, but I don't really care about download services etc. I don't even use my phone as an mp3 player because they don't use standard 3mm jack plugs for earphones, they use crappy other earphones, so I get no choice.

The rest is smoke and mirrors... sometimes wonder how businesses can stay in businesses when they invest in such huge amounts for stupid spinoffs that don't work - oh yeah, they charge exorberant prices for simple things like text messages.
 
Shoseki said:
3G sucks, its true. I would never use my phone for anything other than texting and talking, all that other stuff is crap, though chatrooms could be ok I guess. All this other bumpf like Camera and MP3 is nice, but I don't really care about download services etc. I don't even use my phone as an mp3 player because they don't use standard 3mm jack plugs for earphones, they use crappy other earphones, so I get no choice.

The rest is smoke and mirrors... sometimes wonder how businesses can stay in businesses when they invest in such huge amounts for stupid spinoffs that don't work - oh yeah, they charge exorberant prices for simple things like text messages.
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How do you know something is a 'stupid spinoff' until you try it and it falls flat? Text messaging was never expected to be anything other than a very small, niche service, and look what happened there! All forms of business are about exercising judgement and taking a risk, and any form of new business idea is necessarily a larger risk. Sometimes, it pays off big-time, sometimes it doesn't.

And as for exhorbitant prices, when you make a mobile phone call or send a text, you aren't just paying for the cost of that call or text, but you're making a contribution towards the capital cost of setting up (and upgrading) a vast cellular network, towards the cost of staff salaries, the vans that engineers are using to service masts, the TV advertising budget, ...... and so on, ad nauseum. Oh, and yeah, towards shareholder's profits, too, because if there weren't shareholders prepared to invest in speculative projects, you wouldn't have a cellular network to talk on, or text on, in the first place.

You condemn services other than calls and text as "smoke and mirrors" because you wouldn't use them. The cellular service isn't about what individuals would or wouldn't use and, for that matter, the cellular service doesn't exist at all because of what consumers would use. It was a business service, with phones costing £3000 plus and calls 50p/minute, minimum. Only after some years had costs dropped to the point where consumers started getting interested.

Is 3G a success? Dunno. It certainly doesn't look like it ...... yet? But at the very least a part of that is due to government greed in siphoning off billions in the form of the 3G licence auction. They put the cellular companies in the position of not daring to not bid, because they could well find themselves out of business relying on an antiqiated infrastructure if they hadn't bid, and they bled them as a result.
 
Sequoia said:
But at the very least a part of that is due to government greed in siphoning off billions in the form of the 3G licence auction. They put the cellular companies in the position of not daring to not bid, because they could well find themselves out of business relying on an antiqiated infrastructure if they hadn't bid, and they bled them as a result.
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But that's what virtually every business does, i.e., charge as much as they can get away with...so why not the government?
 
What mobile phones need, and where they have so far been going, is greater integration with data services.

I can browse OcUK on my phone now (dont expect me to post with that keypad)... and I can get RSS news.

Price is the barrier, because I am not going to use services that cost a lot. Like video calling. I would use it if it were cheaper, but not until.
 
So when everyone is video calling will we still have people in india pretending to be british? I can just see them sweltering over there wearing thier bowler hats :p

Not a fan of video calling, I do use my webcam for talking but only to a select few people and only when I'm a little drunk :D
 
I think culturally the British are more reserved and less willing to use 3g calling. I got a 3g phone a little while ago and have made one call on it and felt like a complete an utter prat, and it was only to my brother!

I dont like the idea that you cant lie if you're using a video phone either, which come on lets face it you do a lot on the phone if people can't see where you are...

"Yeah, I'm just leaving" he says as he's scratching his nads getting ready to go out. ;)
 
Am on MSN video conversation now to two friends who are in turkey. It'll definitely take off in some form or another.
 
3G really does suck, me and my mate are the only 2 people we know of with £g video calling and were only use it now and again to see something funny happening. Even at that the audio and video are out of sync.

4G should be better if they ever get it to the market and its price is suitable.
 
I knew 3G would be a flop as well. I also think that the expensive licenses they have been conned into buying has led to them trying to gain back the costs from consumers. However, consumers realise that the costs of using video calling and other 3G services is too expensive and more importantly crap.

I have video calling on my phone, I didn't want it, they just upgraded me automatically, and I tried it once. It was rubbish and I have never even bothered since, same goes for internet. The next big thing that won't take off either is mobile TV.

I just want my phone to be able to send and recive calls and the occassional text message - IT DOESN'T NEED TO DO ANYTHING ELSE! :mad: :)
 
I'm not a fan of video callinng. when I ring someone I generally know who they are already, and if their mug was on display on my handset I probably wouldnt be looking at it anyway, as I like to do other tings at the same time as talking.

Granted, if my girl was to ring while she was away on business and I hadn't seen her in days, then yes, I'd use it then....but other than that, I fail to see me using it much, now or in the future.
 
Video calling will be good for those relatives or Friends who have moved away to a distance. For mates that chat about stuff week in week out or talking to your boss on the phone? Never.
 
AJUK said:
I knew 3G would be a flop as well. I also think that the expensive licenses they have been conned into buying has led to them trying to gain back the costs from consumers.
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Why were they conned into buying the licences? I thought it was up to each company, based on a business case? If they got their predictions wrong, then that is their fault.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Video calling will be good for those relatives or Friends who have moved away to a distance. For mates that chat about stuff week in week out or talking to your boss on the phone? Never.
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Then again....surely you're just get them on a webcam, and talk to them for free with video rather than pay the silly prices of video calls?
 
AJUK said:
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I just want my phone to be able to send and recive calls and the occassional text message - IT DOESN'T NEED TO DO ANYTHING ELSE! :mad: :)
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Nor me .... though I don't even want text messages.

If I get one (which is rare) I delete it unread. Anyone that knows me well enough to have been (legitimately) given my phone number knows better than to text me. And if you weren't (legitimately) given my phone number, I don't care what you tried to text me, I don't want to know about it. I have enough wasted time with unwanted emails. I'm NOT fiddling about with a keyboard on a phone. If it's a voice message, I have answering machines (and a secretarty) for that. My phone is for phone calls ONLY. I don't want a camera, I don't want games, and I don't want MP3 player built in. I just want to make and receive phone calls .... and even then, to a very small list of people.

To me, a mobile phone is a horribly intrusive and pernicious device, justified solely on the basis that it allows me to contact a small number of people, and let them contact me, when it's convenient. All the extra crud on offer merely obfuscates that convenience, and potentially removes the need (or desire) for me to have a mobile at all.
 
Personally I think it is still way too early to tell, I have a 3g handset. I would never use it for video calling but the 3g data speeds are handy when cheating in pub quizzes!

Actually found I was starting to use google and email a bit on my phone for keeping in touch as it wasn't as wretchedly slow as the data speeds on 2g.

As for actual video calling.. it has some interesting business possibilites in certain fields, and is being used in those. I think it might take on as people become happier using it.
 
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