i202 Fall 2010 School of Information, UC Berkeley

As described in the lecture, standards are important vehicles for companies to win in a competitive market and to "take it all". Standards are network goods: The perceived utility of a user increases with the number of users to also use the same standard on their devices, software etc. Take Windows, a DVD or the Internet Protocol. This is because standard compliance allows interoperability, higher performance and increased reliability as well it enables new features and services.