Why is apple refusing to support WebRTC?
I really can't understand why Apple is not supporting WebRTC? Are they really going to push Facetime over WebRTC? They seem like completely separate products.
1. Support web standards allowing developers to build cross-platform apps in which you [Apple] profit little from.
-- or --
2. Lag behind web standards so that developers build iOS-specific apps, increasing the value of iOS and taking a 30% cut of profits of those apps.
It's in the company's best monetary interest to support #2, so that's exactly what they're doing, and WebRTC is not the first time. (They're still lagging behind on HTML5 audio, for example.)
These market forces are the same ones that caused Microsoft be the evil Microsoft of the 1990s: they have a financial interest in lagging behind web standards.
There's a reason why so many people hated Microsoft back in the 1990s, and it led many people to get away from Microsoft wherever possible. Apple doesn't want to end up there...
Apple is already participating to the WebRTC Working Group at W3C: http://www.w3.org/2000/09/dbwg/details?group=47318&public=1
Tip from the Apple team: just ask! Seriously! >> https://forums.developer.apple.com/content?query=webrtc >> https://bugreport.apple.com
A way to contribute getting WebRTC supported by Safari: http://www.webrtcinwebkit.org/blog/2015/3/28/bringing-webrtc...
In the meantime, a few workarounds: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/heres-make-internet-explorer-sa...
https://bloggeek.me/apple-dragging-feet-webrtc/
I think in a couple of years Apple will be so behind that someone else less evil will be the underdog.
I think you're making a subtly different point than judah. They seem to be claiming that apple lags because it enables them to make more off of consumers via iOS specific apps whereas you seem to be claiming they make more off of developers via iOS specific apps. I imagine Apple is far more concerned about judah's consumer point than your developer point; there isn't a ton of profit in selling $100 developer licenses compared to the massive consumer market.