Most people only use their cellphones to make voice calls, we all know this, it is fact. Cingular, however, thinks its come up with a way to entice people to use its 3G features in a new way: video calling.
It’s not the video calling of the G.I. Joe wallscreen we’ve all dreamt about as kids, but rather phone-to-phone broadcasting of video, basically using the video camera on a phone as a glorified webcam. The idea is that one could start a voice call, then say something along the lines of, “No! The strippers here are way hotter than the ones there! Look!”, and then one could point the video camera on one’s phone towards said topless girl, and stream live video to one’s friend.
The technology to do this is relatively simple, Cingular is just the first carrier to attempt it. We see it either being a huge hit or a miserable failure, there’s not really any middle ground here. The key will be other networks following suit with the feature, and the ability to share cross-network, something we’re not counting on. Look for some additional coverage next week, as Cingy is set to demo this new feature at CES, and you know we’ll be there.
Press Release [Cingular]