Video chat comes closer to the mainstream - but do we care?

In a series of TV ads in 1993, American telecommunications company AT&T pitched a vision of a near-future absolutely brimming with live video communication.

From a busy mom tucking her kids in bed from a video phone booth and a barefoot exec participating in a business meeting from the beach to a student quizzing a professor about the history of jazz from across the country, narrator Tom Selleck confidently promised that "You will!" soon be doing all those Jetsonian tricks.

Seventeen years later, the technology is catching up.

The question now is whether anyone wants to use it.

Cell phones, video game consoles, hotel meeting rooms and even video phone sex providers are offering real-time video communication that is far more sophisticated than the glitchy, computer-bound webcams of yore.

Apple probably gave video chat its biggest boost with the launch of the iPhone 4. The phone includes a front-facing camera and software called FaceTime for users to make video calls over Wi-Fi.

"I grew up dreaming about this, and it's real now," a beaming Steve Jobs said during the unveiling.

Apple, which said it sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s in the first three days of availability, isn't the only tech company renewing the conversation over video chat.

HTC and Samsung Telecommunications America are also pushing video chat-capable smart phones, while Microsoft is touting the camera in its upcoming Kinect motion gaming accessory for the Xbox 360 console as a tool for gamers to videoconference with each other on their TVs.

And entrepreneurs are coming up with unexpected ways to use that technology.

Last week, an ad went up on Craigslist looking for women to work at a New York "online interactive pornography firm where (women) will use the iPhone 4 to video chat with potential customers."

Businesses are getting the hard sell as well.

Cisco and Dallas-based AT&T Inc. are promoting a high-end system called "telepresence" that allows high-definition videoconferencing.

In the US, 40 percent of business professionals say their companies will deploy a videoconference system in the next six to 24 months, according to a survey released in February by Global IP Solutions.

For all the hype, video chat is not a new technology.