Market Research Forecasts Total Over 6.2B WebRTC Enabled Devices in 2018

I have occasionally been challenged as "hyping" WebRTC. As many of you know, I believe that something extraordinary is happening in the communications market through WebRTC and the "webification" of communications. In a new report, ABI Research appears to be confirming that WebRTC is a major trend, validating that belief that we are on the cusp of something significant. In the market analysis report just released, "Future of Voice and Messaging - WebRTC and Telco APIs", ABI Research is forecasting 4.7B (billion) Mobile WebRTC Devices by 2018. In the report, ABI research concludes that the lack of Apple and Microsoft support will be overcome by support from major carriers such as AT&T and Telefonica, infrastructure providers like Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson and a plethora of new WebRTC applications, many focused to the enterprise.

ABI Research discusses the barriers to WebRTC adoption, focusing on the lack of support from Apple and the potential alternative offer of CU-RTC from Microsoft. In the end, ABI Research concludes that both Apple and Microsoft will be persuaded to adopt WebRTC because of the huge market opportunity it opens.

Sabir Rafiq, ABI Research analyst, said that, "WebRTC brings many opportunities; ABI Research believes major trends will start to form within the enterprise market with WebRTC. Companies will be willing to implement the new technology to aid productivity and reduce communication barriers within the workplace."

The validation by a major research organization certainly seems to confirm that WebRTC is going to be a major shift in the communications marketplace and that both Microsoft and Apple will decide it is their interest to actively participate in. Last year, Disruptive Analysis issued a report forecasting 4B total WebRTC enabled devices by 2016. If we add the 1.5B PCs referenced in 2016 in that report to the 4.7B mobile devices in the ABI research report, we come to a grand total of over 6.2B devices in 2018. This is an incredible number and does not include a variety of new devices, televisions, cars, and others, that are really computers with browsers and will support WebRTC. The message is the same, WebRTC is real and it is going to be significant. While the report is focused to the Telco market, the identification of enterprise WebRTC apps should certainly pique the interest of UCStrategies readers as this will change the Unified Communications and Collaboration space we all work in.

These findings are from ABI Research's "Future of Voice and Messaging - WebRTC and Telco APIs" report and are part of the Telco API Research Service.