Standards Increase Innovation

Andrew Kantor makes excellent points about standards and their positive impact on innovation and competition in this article in USA Today, including the following:

For consumers, open standards mean an open market, more competition, and lower prices. In contrast, look at a market that’s a bit more proprietary, say, cell-phone batteries. There’s no standard; every phone seems to use a different size and shape. Result: They’re darned expensive to make because they can’t use off-the-shelf parts.