Some of the big questions booming out of boardrooms today are “how fast can we get a return in on our investment?” and “great product, but how quickly can you turn it around”?  The pressure to come up with what often seem like near-impossible timescales has dramatically changed the way standards are created in the technology industry.

It wasn’t that many years ago that companies would happily let their senior executives and top engineers sit on endless committees ratifying industry standards, some successful, others to become industry dodos . Companies were lulled into the false sense that the longer a standard was in the making, the greater its longevity.  At the same time, many were too busy putting standards to blueprint to concentrate on the turn-around of revenue-producing products. Hence some serious dips in the balance sheets.

Since the .com boom and bust, however, companies know that to succeed and conquer they must be able to react to a fast-changing marketplace.  They can no-longer behave like the behemoth technology companies of old who had time on their side.

Many companies, especially those in the consumer electronics fast lane, would prefer not to be hobbled by endless standards body meetings.  By the time a committee of companies has reached a decision, a product could easily have gone from the ‘must have’ list to the ‘don’t want’ list. 

Maybe we should a look at the battle over digital music standards as a lead.  Currently there is no industry standard for downloadable music. This means that, for instance, songs downloaded from Sony's Connect service can only be played on Sony's MP3  Walkman, and not on the Apple iPod (and vice versa).

The fight is reminiscent of the Betamax vs. VHS heavyweight fight of old.  And don’t forget VHS won, despite being technologically inferior.  Apple’s iPod may be the gadget everyone wants to put a hand up to owning, but with Sony/BMG owning 25 per cent of the music market, who will come out on top is anyone’s guess. The only race worth gambling on here is that the consumers that back the wrong horse will lose out!

Of course for semiconductor companies, ‘standards’ is still the mantra. In fact, gone are the days when any IT company would go out of its way to create a proprietary architecture for competitive advantage.  But it doesn’t mean that creating standards isn’t without pain, or increasingly, detours from the traditional route.

One thing is for sure, with product cycles speeding up year on year and the standards process becoming more of a quagmire, there is a danger standards might be thrashed out ‘wild west’ style. If official standards groups can’t come to an agreement, we’ll see break-off groups waging their own standards war or standards will simply get thrown by the wayside altogether.  The result, an industry in chaos and consumers left exposed. 

Standards may sometimes send out mixed messages, and yes there have been times when they haven’t worked out, but as an industry there is no escaping the fact we need them.

We would like to hear your opinions on industry standards and the way forward.
Please email them to:  iq@arm.com