Disruptive technologies inherently alter norms and provide easier and better solutions to the people. These technologies are always revolutionary in nature they either take some strong companies (which see it as an over-hype) unawares and displace them in the market or reposition companies (which pioneer and take hold of it) for bigger market relevance and profitability.
WebRTC happens to be one of such technologies, which is fast-growing and tangible proof is the number people and companies attending the WebRTC IV Conference & Expo in Atlanta few weeks from now as against the last WebRTC conference.
Several concerns have been raised about WebRTC adoption by Apple and Microsoft. Going through the WebRTC Outlook 2014 by WebRTC World, I came to a conclusion that it is a WebRTC prophecy book because a good part of it is becoming reality. Some respondent believes Apple and Microsoft will adopt WebRTC this 2014.
From the look of things, it will take radical happenings for these companies to adopt WebRTC this year seeing they still have Lyncs, Skype and FaceTime. Judging from the WebRTC Outlook and historical trends, Q3 2015 might be too late for them to adopt WebRTC because other companies have taken over the WebRTC space.
Let us take a look at history, when there was hype for mobile devices and Android OS, Intel and AMD, who were the leaders in the microprocessor market with market shares of 85 percent and 14 percent respectively, were indifferent about the whole trend. And between 2012 and 2013 there was a major shift in the device processor market share. Mobile devices shipment increased exponentially while notebook shipments progressively dropped. These gave companies like Qualcomm the upper hand in the market and earned them good market positions. This resulted into several organisational adjustments like change of CEO in the case of Intel and product diversifications.
Also during the hype of Android, some strong mobile phone manufacturers like Nokia never wanted to go into production of Android smartphones but preferred to stick with Windows phones. But to the world’s greatest surprise, Android smartphones surpassed expectations and some other phone manufacturers took advantage of Android OS and have earned enviable market positions in the mobile phone market. It’s good news that Nokia now has an Android smartphone but it will take extra ordinary business tactics to regain or surpass their previous market position.
Recently Nokia-Microsoft have been talking about emerging markets, which is a very strong strategic move that would give them a great edge over other related companies that aren’t seeing a business future in emerging economies. Asia Pacific and Africa having recently been showing good prospects and any company can easily create a niche for themselves in these kind of economies because they are yet to attain market maturity and there has a market ground yet to be conquered. This is one of the reasons why I feel Africa and Asia have the potential of easily increasing the number of users of WebRTC in hundreds of millions within a shortest period.
I believe holding WebRTC conferences in these regions would help more people and companies embrace WebRTC and cause increased rate of adoption and growth of WebRTC.
Looking at the two historical examples, which has some similarities in terms of companies and products involved and their correlation of interests, a great lesson is there to be learnt.
Android OS, Firefox and some Google products are disruptive in nature and have strengthened several IT revolutions and I believe this musketeer team can also help WebRTC repeat history and take over sooner than we expected.
The major shift and decisive period for WebRTC is between Q3 2014 and Q2 2015 and any organization or company thinking about WebRTC for business should take full advantage of this.
David Alozie is a young and innovative entrepreneur with interest in ICT analysis as relates to Africa. He also has experience in Web, mobile app development and WebRTC technology. He also led teams which held talks with organizations like AMD and DTK computers in respect to the Nigerian Market and has carried out several market research surveys on several ICT products in Nigeria.
He is into national development through ICT empowerment trainings in several states of Nigeria. He also had organized some ICT Empowerment training programs under the Ministry of Economic Empowerment, Jigawa State and other organizations. He recently was among the Etisalat top ten in the Etisalat Geek Contest 2013. He presently works with Etisalat Nigeria at the Retail Sales Department.
To find out more about Alozie and Etisalat, visit the company at WebRTC Conference & Expo. Taking place June 17-19 in Atlanta, Ga., WebRTC Conference & Expo is the leading event for developers and decision makers to discuss, network, showcase and learn about the business impacts of WebRTC and the development of standards. Alozie is speaking during “The Global View.” For more information on WebRTC Conference & Expo, click here.
Edited by
Rachel Ramsey
