Right, so we’re all agreed then – none of us wants to be seen on the telephone, so the video telephone has no chance of being a commercial success… Well no, actually – sad to say, there is one application that promises to make the machine a furtive commercial success: the French Minitel viewdata service is kept alive and thriving by the so-called Pages Rose – we’d call them blue, and while 0898 numbers in the UK are infested with services that promise that Naughty Nora or Sexy Susy will do just what you ask her to over the phone, the prospect that clients will pass up the opportunity of being able to see her go through her tricks on the small telephone screen is not one that we would bet on – and such services would also get round the big problem that to be of any use otherwise, the person at the other end has to have a video telephone too.
