5. Pros and Cons of standards.
| Advantages of standards | Disadvantages of standards |
|---|---|
| Allows equipment made by different companies to work together as long as the follow the same standards. | A de-facto standard comes about usually by one dominant company in a sector setting out what they want to do. This de-facto standard may not be the best technical solution. |
| They provide a known level of quality | It can take years for de-jour standards to be agreed through committees. |
| They provide an indication of the performance expected i.e. early modems had an expected speed such as 9600 bits per second because they used a certain standard | They can become out of date almost as soon as they are released e.g. the wireless standards had a problem keeping up with technical developments |
| Having no agreed standard in a new industry can slow down innovation and cost a lot of money. e.g. the companies backing the early Blu-Ray disc were competing with companies backing other technologies. Those non-Blu Ray companies ended up losing a lot of money as their technology lost ground. | In technology especially, standards can rapidly go out of date so there is a need to keep revising it to remain relevant. |
| Following a standard minimises risk for the company as they know their equipment will work with other makers. | |
| Can save money in the development stage because there is no need to 're-invent the wheel'. |
challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you
Click on this link: Communication protocols