Standardization Longover Due For Mobile Devices

Collaborative Class Partner Post

Michael Sargeant’s and Steve Chambers Collaborative blog post

Standardization is a necessary part of any industry. In my opinion, it prompts for a superior product by companies that have the best ideas and manufacturing capabilities. For example, when IBM came out with MCA (micro channel architecture) it had a great deal of potential. It later became one of IBM's downfalls because MCA was incompatible with ISA; that meant the earlier ISA cards would not work at all in an MCA system. The PC market did not like not having backwards-compatibility, as seen by the number of older standards that we still use to this day, such as ISA.

IBM decided to make the MCA bus proprietary. It in fact did this with ISA as well; however in 1981 IBM could afford to flex its muscles in this manner. The clone makers, at that time, were starting to come into their own and were not interested in conforming to IBM's vision.

I wanted to convey this story to the blog audience to prove that non-standard does not guarantee for longevity in any marketplace.

On that note, if battery chargers are not standardized, I am predicting the same fate for companies that will not adapt.
This blog fits in our technology section of our class. We should be interested in this new technology because it will save us time and money in trying to look for a charger that will fit our specific device, for example, a cell phone.