WebRTC is alive and well, and in reality all the AT&T announcement did this past week was move it from the world of early stage and forward looking companies like Citrix with their free version of GoToMeeting, to Switch.co, Talko, Wire, iotum with Calliflower and a cadre of collaboration service providers like appear.in who all see what it means for them and their customers.
At the same time Cisco, Ericsson, Firefox are sticking more than their toes in the water, each finding ways to want to swing their weight, while emerging companies like client Temasys, Telefonica Digital’s TokBox and Acision all are really making things possible by providing platforms that are making WebRTC really work.
What AT&T is doing is basically saying “people call from their computers. We’ll make it possible to move the call from the computer to their AT&T mobile phone.” That’s what Switch is already doing. If AT&T was thinking about changing the game, they would enable that to happen so a call could be “switched” to an iPad or any device as mobile phones are so yesterday.
The real power of WebRTC is only now starting to be seen. The reality is that the new worlds of Internet of Things and Wearables are where the future resides making voice, video, file and screen sharing simply table stakes. You have to do that, and with WebRTC any developer can. It’s what they do beyond the basics that makes WebRTC interesting and game changing down the road.
For the past year or two I have been using Rogers One Number .. comes free with a Rogers Wireless account. I can place and receive calls associated with my BlackBerry phone number from any PC web browser, iPhone, iPad and Android tablet. And I can switch calls between PC/device and my BlackBerry. When I answer a call on my PC the party is instantly there; when I place a call the ringing and answering is almost instant. Don't know if they are using WebRTC (I suspect they are) but the bottom line is that the connection is instant.
Posted by: Jim Courtney | January 09, 2015 at 07:57 AM