Picturephones, were they true?

In this article Lipartito explores the meaning of failure as it related to the development and marketing of the picturephone. This technological device, available in the late 60’s was extremely expensive (“sixteen to twenty-seven dollars per minute for a call”) and was only available in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. In early 70’s the number of picturephones had raised to 453 (1974) and by 1978 they had practically disappeared.

The author presents an argument as to the reasons why this technology was not adopted by the people, as other technologies were – take for example the television. Some reasons that were given for its ‘failure’ was how expensive it was and the privacy issue. But as Lipartito examines the issue he also notices the limitations encountered at the time for lack of the appropriate technological advances in communication. For example, an image that was seen in black and white, or as he cites an early adopter: “There’s no color. You’re gray. I’m gray.” There was also the political issue, the monopoly struggle of telecommunications.

Lipartito also analyses how marketing impacts the adoption of a new product. “… innovation – he argues – is a process of social change that involves the gradual enrollment of new uses and the creation of a platform or standard from which further product innovation can take place” (p. 71). In the next paragraph, he goes on to say: “connecting users to new technology is not easy. An important part of the process of enrollment is attracting an initial group of enthusiasts to the machine”. And this was precisely what was not done with the picturephone. It was not marketed toward a specific group, that 2-3% of innovators and 10-15% of early adopters that would have spread the word around and showed how exiting the new gadget was (Ward, 2003).

So, should we say the picturephone was a failure? I really don’t think so. It is true that it was not adopted by the ‘masses’, that AT&T as well as other telephone companies decided to stop marketing this product. But the fact is that the idea behind it, the idea “for an integrated approach over a single network for multiple media – data, voice, text, graphics, and video” (p. 64-65) is still with us; that is, what we call today the Internet. And as Lipartito states on page 65, instruction in higher education can be carried out today through information technology, as predicted by the Carnegie Commission in the 1960’s.

Therefore, what can be considered a failure, turned out to be the precursor of the Internet, a system that allows us to share with people around the world in a few seconds. Do you think we would have believed it fifty years ago?

Finally, a few words about the title: I remembered hearing about the picturephone, but never believed it was true, never saw one, and though people were trying to trick me when they talked about it. Thanks to Lipartito I now know it was real.


References:

Lipartito, K. (2003). Picurephone and the Information Age. Technology and Culture. 44 (1), p. 50-81.

Ward, Brian. (2003). The Footsteps of Change: Understand how change migrates from one group to the next, and you will dramatically increase your chances of success. Retrieved on November 26, 2003 from http://www.affinitymc.com/managing_change_and_risk.htm.