The Picture Phone. AT&T and other phone companies? Created a Landline Picture Phone

So whatever happened to this invention and why has it never come out again.

Tech Time Warp of the Week: AT&T Uncloaks the Picturephone, 1970 | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

Oh think about this is if Skype and BB get together of BB makes video chat onto a landline phone?

It would be pretty cool

But with the desktop and laptop being so prevalent at home and in the workplace, I don't know if it would kick off since even Grandma has her iPad or cheap $300 laptop that has a webcam.

But I think with where technology is going, to develop a landline phone with video capability would be a "backward" way of thinking. IMHO, I would like to see actual COMPUTERS (desktop, laptop, tablets) w/ landline capability and be able to route calls through your computer's speakers/headset/bluetooth, and going a step further, having seamless integration to switch a phone conversation between devices (computer, landline, cell, tablet, etc) on the fly without dropping the call. GV does this already, but there is room for huge improvements on the seamless integration. And to take it even a step further, to have the ability to video chat that can seamlessly switch between devices regardless if it's a tablet, cell phone, laptop, computer, and go back and forth so easy, it'd be like talking on one of your landlines in your house, then walking into the other room and picking up the other landline off the receiver to switch between phones.