The PicturePhone of 1964 Failure

SeaBreeze

Endlessly Groovin'
Location
USA
“…introduced in 1964, flopped yet nearly catalyzed the internet. Technically, it was an amazing achievement: Bell used the existing twisted-pair copper wire of the telephone network – not broadband lines like today – to produce black and white video on a screen about five inches square.

And, amazingly for the time, it used a CCD-based-camera. It was meant to be the most revolutionary communication medium of the century, driving subscribers to purchase broadband lines, but failed miserably as a consumer product costing Bell a half billion dollars. This is one of three videos in a series on marketplace failures of technological objects.” — engineerguy

 


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