Are video calls finally hitting the mainstream?

Do you remember your first video call? Perhaps it was on Skype, Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Talk or Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iChat on a desktop computer.
Now the video calling phenomenon is finally taking hold in mobile, thanks in large part to Apple’s recently launched FaceTime and similar services from the likes of fringland Ltd., Tango, Qik Inc. and many others.
Nearly one in five American adults, or 19%, have placed a video call either online or via their cellphones, according to a new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Overall, 23% of those surveyed said they have placed a video call online and 7% have done so on a mobile device.
Since this is the first survey of its kind from the organization that took mobile video calls into account, there’s no way of telling how much video calling has jumped of late, but Pew says that desktop-based video calls have doubled since April 2009.
The group also found that young adults, those living in households making more than $75,000 a year and men were among the most likely to have participated in video calls.