Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks
When there are no (prior) market standards, someone has to TRY and get theirs adopted (Market Leader). HP sort of managed with HPIB -> IEEE488, but it is rare. No one wants to pay ROYALTIES to their competitor.  It usually takes a industry standards group.. IEEE, USB, W3C... to avoid $$ to others. Usually, it is Consumer stuff that gets Industries attention (volume sales potential). IBM did it with their personal computer (then lost the ball :/ ) |
Pretty much.
VC9 was killing it early in the BD era because it was the only licensor (vs 25 in the LA MPEG group) and tbus cheaper, it had better autgoring software, because it enabled full HD movies in the cheaper, more durable single layer BD disks. Eventually the H.264 rates came down and since they included MPEG for DVD compatibility VC9 prospects dimmed.
Sony had the right idea, in some cases, but others like ATRAC and Memory stick were just NIH (not invented here) "solutions" meant to leverage brand loyalty to avoid paying royalties. That is why killing LRF in favor of the committee format ePub is so ironic. The one time the market was swinging in favor of walled gardens is the time tbey chose to go open.
Going proprietary or open isn't a clear choice, no matter what many advocates say. Sony's failures weren't just from going proorietary buy in timing and execution. Like, ATRAC was years too late to challenge MP3 or even WMA and on top of it too user hostile. Their hardware was nice but ATRAC made it unbuyable.
Like the early precursors of this:
https://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-...man-mp3-player
Great ergonomics and controls, lousy software.
Oftentimes proprietary can move faster than open committees but it requires moving at least as fast as the market. IBM needed openness to establish the PC but once Don Estridge died the people that took over and moved to MicroChannel and refused to license it couldn't keep pace with the clones and their quarterly new product releases. There were any number of steps IBM could've taken to stay ahead of the clones but yearly refreshes weren't one of them. Neither was the intentionally crippled PC Jr.
eBooks have stabilized lately now that it has settled into a MMPB replacement but early on the agility of proprietary allowed the simplicity of whispersync to run unchallenged for the most critical years when installed bases were being built. While everybody argued formats and hardware, it was standalone wireless delivery that shaped the market.
A further irony is that back when it was a competitive advantage, Amazon offered to license whispersync and found no takers.
By now wireless delivery is standard but Whispersync was "the firstest with the mostest". Prime mover advantage is powerful; IBM blew it, Kindle hasn't.