History of Video Calls: From Fantasy to Flops to Facetime

A visual history of the science and sci-fi of phone calls you can see. (And, no, it didn't start with The Jetsons.)

2010 and Beyond

So is the dedicated videophone dead? As far as the "decidated" part, probably - at least for consumers. But the videophone element? Not at all.

The iPhone 4 (seen here) isn't the only next-generation videosmartphone-it was beaten to market by Sprint's EVO 4G. Both have big touchscreens, front-facing cameras, and software designed to make video calls painless (although the EVO had some initial hiccups). Apple even promises to make FaceTime an open standard to promote interoperability- something badly needed to bring videophones to the mainstream.

Will it finally happen? Only time will tell.

Photo: Apple

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