When will we see video phones widely used? The technology is available already. What's holding it back...reluctance by us all to part with our traditional old telephones?

Nah, people just don't want to do the hair and makeup thing all the time, gawd man if you ever saw me in the morning... Seriously though, I think it's only good for business ATM. Hey, I've been wrong before and will be again, heck, I don't even have a cell phone!

I think the major thing holding them back is the infrastructure to hold the conversation on. While the lines are up in the US and nearly everywhere else for cable and phone, they are already being maxed out with DSL/Cable internet solutions and companies cannot keep up with demand for more and more bandwidth. After the lines are replaced with fiber, like Verizon is doing here many places now (FIOS) and the prices of video phones go down, I think they will become more and more common.

I'm with Augie - nobody wants a scary pic with their fone call. Technology will keep moving on though I'm afraid and you'll have to turn off the pic will be the norm.

For 99% of conversations, video is not needed for a phone call. Think about all of the people that make phone calls in their cars, do we want them looking at video while driving too?

One of my favorite quotes from a local radio personality here in Indy about cell phone service still being horrible. He stated that he still gets dropped calls like crazy, but now with the new technology, when the call is dropped he gets to "see a picture of the person he was just talking to."

Maybe the phone companies should concentrate on voice service rather than new features.