Given three weeks or so, any fourth grader can easily replicate and exceed my programming skills. However, rarely can my product strategy vision be beat. I know just how unusual the ability to see the entire picture is and wholly appreciate when I identify it in others, such being the case with Tsahi Levent-Levi’s recognizing the game change in his post on the reduction of developers required to deliver a WebRTC video conference.
I would like to point out some aspects of the chronicle as covered by Levent-Levi and also add to the discussion. First, Levent-Levi is accurately reporting both his own history and the current trends with WebRTC as it relates to staffing a development effort. The over-the-top world can do all this with VP8 and live free and clear of the extra personnel. Jobs are internal to the battle over VP8/9 and H.264, however, equating to span of control, which in large companies equates to management. The carriers have the advantage of reach and being able to embed the solution into their existing strategy. (Note: I have spoken about the VoLTE strategy in previous articles and believe that we should not assume WebRTC will be much different). For a more elaborate exposition on the impact on signaling, check out Larry Bird’s article. In addition, an over-the-top strategy is in effect competing with Google’s strategy. So I question whether having so many competitors in a “Me too!” world works.
For me, the takeaway is that an embedding WebRTC video conferencing service is probably a feasible way to differentiate and perhaps emulate Google’s ability. In the same way that YouTube enables embedding, your aim should be to have every site as an embedded partner, and if you do that you reduce Webmaster programming worldwide to about 15 minutes and perhaps manage to build a community around you. Your embedding should be the video conferencing equivalent of "Hello World" (every Webmaster has programmed "Hello World' at some point), and your goal should be to cajole all of those Webmasteres currently using templates and software suites into simply including your embed. In addition, if you want to find a way to exit, a good strategy is to emulate Google’s relationship to networks. It’s okay to own your data-networking infrastructure, however, if it is associated with access and the PSTN, outsource.
A day may come when Google decides it wants to be a carrier, but I suspect it won’t happen in this quarter-century. If you choose to enable the carriers, though, the odd thing is that you may have to build in precisely the same manner as you would for partnering with Google (only in this case, you will end up with a lot of IMS-like interfaces).
So to close, if you are thinking that opportunity for differentiation is limited, I think you are correctly reading the tealeaves. And if you are thinking that you would like to discuss the subject of WebRTC video conferencing at greater length with both the experts and with your peers, then plan to be with us in Santa Clara from November 19-21 for WebRTC Conference and Expo.
Edited by
Rachel Ramsey
