WebRTC brought huge hopes and expectations to the world of communications. It brought lofty promises and appeared to be a revolutionary technology. But did it fulfill those expectations and live up to its promises? We think not.
While WebRTC certainly has had some success, it has fallen short in many ways. No Jitter shared an article about the three major failings of WebRTC:
1. It is not ubiquitous. WebRTC is only supported by Chrome and Firefox, leaving Safari, IE, and mobile users out of luck. Developers cannot count on End User compatibility as was originally expected of WebRTC.
2. It is not plugin-free. The workaround to the compatibility issue is Browser Plugins, WebRTC’s second broken promise. WebRTC was meant to elimiate the need for Plugins and the accompanying security threats and extra work for the End User.
3. It is not free. While WebRTC is technically free, its legality is not. Ongoing legal disputes over patent claims hang over WebRTC and prevent it from being truly ‘free’. While Cisco offeres a free license solution, this brings us back to the issue of plugins.
In short, WebRTC has broken several promises and failed to deliver a new, revolutionary solution. However, not all hope is lost. WebRTC may be the foundation needed to inspire future innovation. Developers now have a framework to change, improve, and create something new.
To read more, visit the No Jitter article WebRTC is for Losers.