Prior to the unveiling of every new Apple device there is immense speculation about its features – Microsoft, Nokia and even Google must sit back in helpless awe and jealously watch the hype surrounding each announcement.  Steve Jobs is a marketing genius.

Few features have been more anticipated than video calling – it is expected in every device launch and never arrives.  It was rumoured back in 2008 in the original iPhone 3G, then the 3GS, then the iPad and iPhone OS 3.2 now apparently has hooks to allow for video calling.  But no devices have a front facing camera so that’s not much use.  Yet.

Third parties such as Fring offer video calling support on a variety of devices (now including the iPhone), though they have a long way to go on usability / quality (our tests showed it to be unusable on Nokia devices).

Video calling has not been the success that 3G networks hoped for – most 3G handsets and networks support video calling over a 64kb/s circuit (quality is moderate) – but today’s IP networks can handle higher bandwidth and higher quality.  Given Apple’s relentless pursuit of control, user experience and quality they’ve probably been waiting for the networks to catch up.  Which many have now.

What the market really needs is Apple to jump onto it – and provide a compelling user experience.  This will doubtless be via iChat – but third party apps are also likely to gain access to forthcoming front facing cameras through the SDK.

Given this week’s OS 3.2 announcements, what’s the betting that our next iPhone will have a front-facing camera?  It’s exciting – and will see mobile video calling finally hitting the mainstream.

Update 21.02.2010: Mashable is reporting even more evidence that video chat is on its way to the iPhone + iPad – it looks like it’s definitely more than rumour now!