Online meeting options have a variety of tools on hand to help users get connected, and here, Apple (News - Alert) users are no exception. With so many ways to connect and be connected in turn, it would be easy to think that the market was widely diffuse, with several different solutions in play. But for those on the Apple platform, users seem to be naturally gravitating toward one major solution in the form of WebEx. Why are users turning to this solution in droves? It seems to mostly come down to features.
Breaking down the numbers, meanwhile, shows that there are some clear differences between three of the most substantial solutions in the field. WebEx offers up an array of services, ranging from screen sharing to voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calling to video conferencing and beyond. But two of its major competitors—GoToMeeting Pro and JoinMe Pro—differ in points from WebEx Premium 8, and these differences seem to be driving a major portion of the disconnect. For instance, GoToMeeting Pro does not offer file sharing, which WebEx Premium 8 does at last report, and JoinMe Pro doesn't offer the videoconferencing capability that WebEx Premium 8 does. WebEx has an average 4.5 rating, as does GoToMeeting Pro—JoinMe Pro is rated a four even—but WebEx Premium 8 derives that average from 129 reviews, compared to GoToMeeting Pro's 16 and JoinMe Pro's 29.
Moreover, users seem to prefer smaller numbers of participants. WebEx only offers space for eight participants maximum, while GoToMeeting has 25 and JoinMe boasts 250. Pricing comes into play here as well, as WebEx charges $19 per host per month—though paid on an annual basis—while GoToMeeting asks better than double that per organizer per month at $39. Meanwhile, JoinMe passes on the costs to most everyone at last report, seeking $15 per user per month.
So what can we take away from this? Small conferences seem to be the order of the day, and users are gravitating toward a solution that inherently allows for small conferences. But the combination of a high number of features available for a comparatively slim amount of cash is compelling to users as well, and that's what makes things particularly interesting. On the surface, it could be said that WebEx is just offering the better value, bringing the most features to users for the least amount of money, but by like token, it's only offering those features to a comparative handful of users at a time. This might mean that, for Apple users, conferences are commonly done in small groups, befitting startup companies, remote worker groups, or divisions within larger companies that may not need to connect to wide-scale operations. However, as the rise of Web-based real time communications (WebRTC) comes into play, it may well be that small-scale solutions like WebEx could end up swamped by the ability to stage simple connections from a browser.
There are several potential explanations for the numbers seen thus far, but for the most part, WebEx appears to be simply offering up a great value for its users, and doing so in the fashion which most users want to see. This has proven to be a great strategy for WebEx, meanwhile, and may well prove to be one that other users can imitate comparatively quickly. Only time, in the end, will be able to tell if WebEx can hold its leadership position, and if users' tastes change in the interim, it may well not.
Edited by Maurice Nagle