Why Video Calling Is Not More Popular
I don't think I'd use it because it doesn't seem the least bit practical. Consider what is required: holding the phone out in front of oneself with one's hand. For one thing, most people have enough trouble walking with it pressed firmly against their ear let alone balanced in mid-air such that it is stationary relative to their face so that the transmitted video isn't a nasuea-inducing mess. Perhaps some advanced algorithm could reduce the jitter, but a more pressing concern remains: Do we really need more things to keep people from paying attention to where they're going? The alternative, of course, is to use it while stopped. I imagine that'll go over about as well as telling people to pull to the side of the road to make phone calls without video. What good is a mobile phone if you can't be mobile while using it?
Assuming people are about as thrilled with that prospect as I am, that relegates the use of video calling to the home and office. Here it seems slightly more useful, and as screen size and quality increase, I imagine this would become its most likely adoption vector. But I can't help shake the image of grandma and grandpa gathered around a docked phone, screaming and waving and peering and asking "Can you see us?" repeatedly with earnest. And while we're sitting down at home, why not just whip open the laptop? Given the suddenness with which webcams have saturated the portable computer market, it seems the only hope for video calling lies in the much anticipated "convergence" of the phone and computer. Moore's Law may help bring that about sooner rather than later, but I think it may be a while before people throw away their 15-inch screens entirely.
If you ask me, the only hope for video calling outside of the laptop rests with some unforeseen breakthrough in technology. When our phones can generate accurate 3D models of us by tapping into our brains and detecting the positions of our muscles, and when the corresponding models of the other parties on the line can be injected directly into our visual cortex, then, just maybe, will video calling really take hold.