WebRTC, a free browser-based technology, looks set to change the way we communicate and collaborate, up-ending telecoms firms, online chat services like Skype and WhatsApp and remote conferencing on WebEx.
Web Real-Time Communication is a proposed internet standard that would make audio and video as seamless as browsing text and images is now. Installed as part of the browser, video chatting is just a click away with no need to download an app or register for a service.
WebRTC allows anyone to embed real-time voice, data and video communications into browsers, programs - more or less anything with a chip inside. You can use a WebRTC-compatible browser like Mozilla's Firefox to start a video call just by sending someone a link.
Further ahead, WebRTC could add video and audio into all kinds of products and services, from GoPro cameras and educational software to ATMs and augmented reality glasses. Imagine, for example, wanting to buy flowers online and being able, at a click, to have the florist demonstrate arrangements to you live via a video link.
WebRTC will be a market worth $4.7 billion by 2018, predicts Smiths Point Analytics, a consultancy. Dean Bubley, a UK-based consultant, reckons over 2 billion people will be using WebRTC by 2019, some 60% of the likely Internet population.
Most of these will be mobile. Some versions of Amazon's Kindle multimedia tablet, for example, have a 'Mayday' button which launches a WebRTC-based video call with a customer service representative.
0 comments: