Video calling has gotten to be very easy and convenient. Chris O’Brien, in a Mercury News article, tells us about his mother’s adoption of Skype for video calls. I have a similar arrangement, whereby we ring up my East Coast based parents for weekly Skype video calls (we’re on the West Coast). It’s great to not only hear from family on a regular basis, but to see them as well – smiles, body language, their latest purchase, the kid’s latest art project, etc. When our parents’ generation can configure and activate a service (like Skype), then it becomes prime time for widescale adoption.
And, technology is going to make it easier and easier. I see desktop and laptop manufacturers bundling webcams and associated software, so that video calling is ready to go upon initial power-on of a new computer. When I purchased an Acer Aspire One netbook this month, I noticed (only when opening the box) that it includes a built-in webcam.
With SightSpeed now part of Logitech, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Logitech-powered bundle of video calling capabilities included in some makes of PCs or laptops. I expect to see increased use of video calling in 2009, primarily at a consumer level. It will be interesting to see if video calling emerges in the corporate space and whether it becomes useful (or popular) in venues like B-to-B virtual tradeshows.
Gotta go now – the parents are ringing me on Skype.
It's All Virtual 
“…. then it becomes prime time for widescale adoption.”
I couldn’t agree more with you Dennis. That’s the bet we made when launching Vizitant here in Ireland – a project aiming to bring video calling services to the elderly, home carers, disabled and other socially marginalized groups. Utlimately we want to bring video to isolated seniors living alone but for our pilot project we’re focusing on nursing/retirment homes and respite centers.
We’ve recently been trialling an Asus AiGuru SV1 Skype Video phone and feel that it’s simplified interface will make video calling more accessible to many of our users. However we’re greatly looking forward to the launch of the Asus Eee Top touchscreen PC and believe that it will allow us to make another jump in ease of use.
Great blog by the way Dennis, now subscribed!