WebRTC World Feature Article Free eNews Subscription

November 21, 2013

Ericsson Explains What WebRTC Needs to Meet Its Promise


There have been a lot of predictions about the demise of the voice industry, but the reality is that people aren’t communicating any less. So says Vish Nandall, CTO and head of strategy and marketing at Ericsson, who suggested we “free” voice by challenging century-old assumptions.

Nandall was among the keynote speakers at today’s WebRTC Conference & Expo in Santa Clara, Calif.

During that speech he made a comparison between communications and produce, saying that people don’t want to pay for fruits and veggies in bulk, and in fact might be willing to pay extra for certain foods that are exotic or organic. The same is true for communications services, he said, explaining that people and companies may be willing to pay extra for a special feature or level of service, at least at certain times to meet particular needs. WebRTC can enable new services to meet those special needs.

Nandall also issued a call to action to make WebRTC mobile first, and he noted that a survey by TokBox indicates the most requested new feature is mobile (56 percent). WebRTC, he said, will convert every mobile endpoint into a participant.

WebRTC has strong abstractions and demand for communications, he said, but we’ve still got some ways to go before we get to ubiquity across browsers, and the ecosystem will need some time to harden, so developers can build on solid foundations.

To be successful, he said, WebRTC will also need business cases to enable monetization, and models and companies for distribution and retailing – three areas for which the industry is in search of leaders.

As noted in the September issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine, WebRTC is already supported on more than one billion endpoints, according to Google, one of the key proponents of this new technology. Disruptive Analysis expects that to grow to 3.9 billion by 2016. 




Edited by Rory J. Thompson
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.