It was another incredible week in the field of Web-based real time communications (WebRTC), and as such, there was quite a bit of news emerging surrounding new developments in the field. With a big weekend coming for a lot of people out there, it was certainly time to settle in and run down some of the biggest news in the field with our Week in Review coverage.
First, we saw something very unique this week, as WebRTC got the first ever full-market analysis from Disruptive Analysis. In its report, titled "WebRTC Market Status & Forecasts: The Hype Is Justified: It will Change Telecoms," Disruptive Analysis looked at over 70 different companies in the WebRTC market, and provides information on an array of different topics within the market. The report further describes WebRTC as "one of the most disruptive Web / telecoms innovations in years," and offers a variety of possibilities in terms of just where this market is headed.
Next came a report that the WebRTC Conference and Expo – set to take place June 25-27 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, Georgia – was getting a new keynote speaker in Ian Small, CEO at TokBox. TokBox offers up the OpenTok API, which is an industry leading platform for video chat, and thus many look for Small's keynote to cover topics on helping partners offer better experiences through the use of video.
Then we had a more general report around one simple question: are you ready for WebRTC? That's a very broad question, but it had plenty of component parts involved therein, as WebRTC would offer along with it a wide array of possibilities. From contact centers that would be able to engage in video chats with users right from a Web browser, to a huge new step in collaboration efforts and well beyond, WebRTC is a concept that brings quite a bit to the table, and requires businesses of many stripes to actively consider the role that WebRTC can play in their own operations.
Next we had a look at the role of the Conversat.io system as it relates to WebRTC. A development of the Mozilla Hacks blog, in conjunction with &yet, Conversat.io offers up an easy way to not only make video conversations, but also show off the kind of power that WebRTC can bring to the field. It's not a perfect solution yet – it only works with Chrome and Firefox Nightly Channel – but it's doing a great job of showing just what WebRTC will be capable of, eventually, when it starts making its way to wide release.
Finally, there was a closer examination on the issue of Nokia and Google, and how it relates back to WebRTC. Nokia had essentially refused to work with the larger WebRTC community, despite something of an olive branch gesture from Google to cross license VP8 with H.264 – a measure that was said to be designed to end the overall controversy in the field. But early word suggests WebRTC making it into a wider field any time soon may prove rather difficult.
That was the week that was in WebRTC, and with a huge amount of things happening, from new products to developments between rivals, it's not surprising to see that there's a lot of news in the field to go over. Our global online community was constantly on the hunt for more, so be sure to join us back here next week for more news, and of course, every weekend for our Week in Review coverage.
