Why Have Past Consortia for Compatibility Failed, and Why Would DECE Now Succeed?

As Cliff Edwards states in his article, “This [DECE] isn't the first attempt to create standards and a set of devices where a consumer is guaranteed interoperability.”  Why have past efforts as created a compatible ecosystem of devices and content failed, and why would DECE now succeed?

As to why consortia in the past have failed, there is a tension between companies having the incentives to establish compatible ecosystems and them having the ability (leverage) to do so.

More specifically, the companies that have enough leverage to convince competitors and complimentors to establish a compatible ecosystem are often precisely those companies that are large enough to support their own proprietary ecosystems.  Apple is a case in point.  With the tremendous success of its iPods and iPhones (and Macs), Apple has enough users to support its own proprietary ecosystem.  (In fact, by orchestrating the creation of iTunes to enable the iPod, Apple’s ecosystem attained critical mass even before the iPhone was released.)  To boot, Apple’s digital rights management system already allows users to access content from multiple devices, surely a contributing factor to its success:

iTunes Authorization - This terms applies to songs, videos, and other content bought from the iTunes store.

Content at the iTunes store is only able to be shared and played on a maximum of 5 computers (due to the iTunes Store's digital rights management). In order to allow the files to play on these computers, you must authorize them.

When you try to play an item bought at the iTunes store on a computer other than the one it was originally purchased on, a window will pop up asking for authorization. When you successfully enter the correct username and password, the file will play.

As in the current case with DECE and Apple, it is often in response to one company’s success in the marketplace that some of its competitors attempt to band together to compete by creating their own ecosystem.  However, without the participation of the dominant player’s hardware and/or software in the new ecosystem, the remaining companies often fail to attract a sufficient amount of leverage to establish their own ecosystem.  Part of the problem may be due to the fact that other large companies are trying to establish their own proprietary ecosystems.

Given the failure of past consortia to achieve critical mass, will DECE succeed this time, and if so, why?

Members of the DECE consortium currently include: Adobe, Alcatel-Lucent, Ascent Media Group, Best Buy, Blueprint Digital, CableLabs®, Catch Media, Cisco, Comcast, Cox Communications, Deluxe Digital, DivX, Dolby Laboratories, DTS, ExtendMedia, Fox Entertainment Group, HP, Intel, Irdeto, Liberty Global, Lionsgate, Microsoft, MOD Systems, Motorola, Movie Labs, Nagravision, NBC Universal, Netflix, Neustar, Nokia, Panasonic, Paramount Pictures, Philips, RIAA, Rovi, Roxio CinemaNow, Samsung Electronics, Secure Path, Sony, SwitchNAP, Tesco, Thomson, Toshiba, Verimatrix, VeriSign, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Widevine Technologies Inc. and Zoran.

As “Apple Isn't only One Missing from DECE Consortium” by Erik Sherman notes:

But that [Apple] is hardly the only noticeable omission. What about Nintendo, which only makes the top two game consoles in the world? You can’t talk about entertainment without including gaming, particularly when there’s been long-term speculation that the game console could become the natural entertainment center of the home. NetFlix [has since joined DECE] or Amazon or Blockbuster, all three of which are major forces in media distribution? Not members.

Also absent from the consortium are Disney and Google.

So will DECE succeed?

As Apple’s dominance continues to grow, there will be and increasing amount of urgency by other companies, especially those producing hardware, to join together to try to retain market share.  At the same time, as the Internet evolves, the increasing proliferation of content made available, together with devices to access that content will only increase user desirability of multi-platform compatibility.

On the other hand, Google has tried to develop a compatible platform with its open source Android system.  Many hardware developers have provided Android-compatible devices, including Barnes and Noble, Dell, Lenovo, LG, Motorola, and Samsung.  However, the desire of developers to differentiate their products from other Android system devices has ended up creating compatibility issues, thereby defeating much of purpose of having a compatible system.