Many say that WebRTC is the future of communications. After all, it simplifies the process for end users by eliminating hassles like downloading software or plugins, and it brings real-time communications to the browser. Others say that the technology is mostly hype, and won’t be as disruptive as we think. I think the number of companies, products and partnerships this week would beg to differ. Here are the top WebRTC stories this week.
One of the biggest stories this week was Twitter developing a click-to-call feature for users to directly contact advertisers. The move integrates communication capabilities even more tightly with the real-time communication service. This type of functionality is optimized for mobile, but its future on desktop browsers is not too far away. WebRTC, a technology enabling peer-to-peer real-time communication, makes calling over a browser possible. Users can engage in audio and video calls, as well as file sharing and screen sharing, without downloading any software or plugins.
Telecom market research firm Infonetics recently published a report that points to dramatic growth in the unified communications (UC) industry. The group's end-of-year Enterprise Unified Communications and Voice Equipment report states worldwide revenue for companies in the industry grew 31 percent last year and analysts have explored the ramifications such growth will have on the enterprise telephony market. Analysts predict an annual growth rate of 7 percent for UC through 2018, but that continued development of WebRTC may disrupt that growth. Individual and corporate experimentation with WebRTC could lead to that technology usurping dedicated videoconferencing providers by allowing people to achieve similar results at home or in the office.
According to social science research, 80 to 90 percent of what we communicate comes from body language, which makes video communication an important asset to fully engage everyone in the team. Just like any other tool, organization must establish a code of behavior for calling meetings only when necessary and using the technology to move the overall agenda forward. If an issue can be addressed using email, then by all means it should be used.
Virtual meeting rooms are set to play a big role in the future of business communications, and Veeting Rooms wants to be the company to offer them a platform that makes virtual meetings easy and productive. Launched at the end of February, Veeting Rooms takes video conferencing to the next level by focusing on security, collaboration and quality. The large enterprise market is typically dominated by companies like Cisco, Polycom and Avaya, but Veeting Rooms isn’t after that market. It’s targeting SMEs, which are looking for easy-to-implement, feature-rich tools that don’t require a large IT department to manage.
Weemo and TrueVault, a provider of regulatory compliant storage for Protected Health Information (PHI) and Personally Identifiable Information (PII), are partnering to deliver a HIPAA-compliant video cloud platform, powering telehealth apps with WebRTC. Weemo is the only option for telehealth providers that want to rely on a cloud platform to add real-time video with the recording capabilities.
The WebRTC ecosystem continues to grow and change every week, but Brad Bush, GENBAND, set out to visualize the different players in the market today. In an infographic, Bush featured about 75 companies broken up into four main categories: developer tools, carrier-centric, enterprise and consumer-centric and technology enablement.
Next week we’ll be attending Enterprise Connect in Orlando, Fla., which is set to bring some exciting WebRTC news and discussions. Be sure to check back here for the latest industry updates and features. Have a great weekend.
