Philippe Sultan, co-founder and CTO of Apidaze, made a point that most others didn’t at WebRTC Conference & Expo: the functionality the various vendors and developers are showing isn’t unique to WebRTC. This won’t be a shock to WebRTC insiders (700 of whom descended upon Atlanta this week) – but it may cause some questions from others as to why there is so much interest around a technology that isn’t going to deliver new features.
The answer is actually very simple: more than a billion mobile users (and more than three billion in four years), in addition to desktop-based connected devices. The very fact that a WebRTC session can enable communication between anyone with a Web browser means instant access to, well, anyone with Internet access.
So, the issue isn’t new features – it is first making WebRTC a stable, reliable option and then making it easy for developers to implement.
The demos at WebRTC Expo are evidence the technology is ready for prime time, and companies like Apidaze are doing their share to make its integration into websites and existing infrastructures easy. Apidaze does it through its JS API that simplifies the development process and allows developers to quickly become part of the WebRTC community.
“The idea is we provide the ability to build voice and SMS and WebRTC apps,” explained Sultan. “We provide the DID numbers and full SIP domains and have complete control over calls made to their numbers.”
Sultan and co-founder Luis Borges Quina are longtime telecom industry veterans and understand what a good enterprise system needs. Their point is that anything you can have in an enterprise system is feasible with WebRTC and they will continue to focus on the enterprise scenario, including the contact center, which Sultan sees as a great opportunity for WebRTC, but they will also set sights on the telco market, which is a massive target for all WebRTC vendors.
Are they on the right track? The announcement that it has brought on new president and CEO Richard Lalande is certainly seems to indicate so. Lalande is the co-founder of SFR, France’s second-largest telco. His knowledge of and success in the telecom space meshes well with Sultan’s expectations for the future of WebRTC in general, and Apidaze specifically.
There’s much education still needed and standards to be ratified, but with or without standards, WebRTC is coming. Announcements earlier this year from Google and Mozilla in support of WebRTC were a major step forward and, while there is debate over whether Microsoft’s support is needed, there is no question that it would be a benefit. Until then, companies will continue to also provide a Flash interface.
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
