WebRTC World Feature Article Free eNews Subscription

March 04, 2013

Mozilla Gives a Look at the Future of WebRTC


So far, two major players have put a lot of effort into supporting WebRTC: Google and the Mozilla Corporation. It makes sense, since both companies tend to favor open Web technologies. However, Mozilla has proven itself perhaps most dedicated to the browser-based real-time communications standard and has arguably done more than anyone so far to make it commonly known and used.

Mozilla is currently lagging behind Google in desktop support, as Chrome has boasted full WebRTC support since the release of Chrome 23 in November, while Firefox only just picked up WebRTC in its bleeding edge Aurora and Nightly builds in February. Still, WebRTC support in a stable Firefox release is on the way.

It's on the mobile side of things that Mozilla seems to be the most advanced. For example, the company released a video demonstration recently of how WebRTC can be used on both the desktop and a mobile device working in tandem. In the example given, users will be able to leverage their mobile contacts from Firefox for desktop to make a WebRTC call, while Mozilla's social API enables file transfer during that same call.

The seamless drag-and-drop WebRTC experience demonstrated in the video was brought to life with the help of Ericsson, a company that also seems interested in making WebRTC take off, and AT&T. In true Mozilla fashion, the company sees the value of working together to forward open standards.

"We believe there is value for operators bundling mobile and fixed broadband offerings with browsers, and Firefox will be the first browser to give them this opportunity," said Magnus Furustam, VP Product Area Core and IMS, Business Unit Networks, Ericsson, in a statement. "The open source project with Mozilla means operators can contribute resources to the project and in a new way, jointly collaborating with other innovators to shape the future of web communications."

Considering Mozilla has its own mobile OS, Firefox OS, on the way, it's exciting to think what further innovations the company will bring to WebRTC.




Edited by Rachel Ramsey
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]




FOLLOW US

Free WebRTC eNewsletter

Sign up now to recieve your free WebRTC eNewsletter for all up to date news and conference details. Its free! what are you waiting for.