Recently WebRTC has come into the forefront with active discussions on the VUC and now a back and forth on Twitter with some of the brighter minds I know on the subject of technology adoption chiming in. The Twitter back and forth reminds me of a group of guys sitting around the bar discussing the latest new player on a sports team, minus the beers and shots. And since we do it in 140 characters, comments are not exactly always fully explained. But I digress.
What is happening with WebRTC is actually very exciting. It means that inside the browser will be all the communications elements that allow for a high-quality audio or video call, plus the guts to wrap other real-time collaboration around (screen sharing is likely the first and most logical) but also other services like remote desktop, personalized messaging (think presence based comms) and more.
The chatter on Twitter though surrounds mobile and when WebRTC will be there. My gut tells me we'll see it first on Android, but I wouldn't rule RIM out with BB 10 given how BBM and WebRTC would be a killer combo. Some think Windows Mobile, but even if Microsoft does implement the technology inside Internet Exlporer, given their history of things not always working right, it would need to be a Skype port, as they now have too much invested in the property. Skype has been working in that direction, but so far, there hasn't been much follow up to the talk that Jonathan Rosenberg gave a few years ago on the subject at eComm so I'm not holding my breath there. And, as for Apple, right now they continue to push Facetime, so hopefully, they take what they learned from it, and put it inside Safari but again, I think it will be Chrome on Mobile that leads the way, with Firefox right behind.
What do you think?
There was no beer on my side of the chatter – just a bagle with sesame and some tehini to go with it 🙂
I think Android will be first.
BB 10 should be there before Android, because they have more to lose – so does Windows 8, but both will come later.
Android will probably do Chrome first and then the native browser that comes with a phone, with a gap of 6-9 months between them – due to the release vehicle available to Android (new Android version with a new phone introduced to the market).
I reckon it’ll appear at roughly the same time on Tizen, BB10 & Android (via Chrome).
And of course there’s already Ericsson’s Bowser around, plus we’ll see more app-embedded WebRTC via SDKs from the likes of Hookflash, Phono/Voxeo, Telefonica/TokBox, AddLive etc.
Will be interesting when Apple joins as Facetime is based on AAC-ELD and h.264 codecs and this means that these codecs will probably be enabled by Apple for WebRTC.
Android will be the first one… it would be boon when it comes as a native API… may be in Android 5.0?
Last summer Skype had a few developer job openings in London specifically related to WebRTC. Will be interesting to see what shows up.
Android (the Google team must be working hard on this) , then Windows (MS also very active in CU RTC Web) then BB10.
But there are really only two mobile platforms that matter at the moment, and of those two Android will definitely be first.