Fast Times at 2.4GHz: The Open Standards War Between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

(Open) Standards Wars In “The Art of Standards Wars,” Robert Shapiro gives a brief overview of several major standards wars in business history. The oldest one he mentions is the battle over standard railroad gauge between the Northern and Southern United States. The development of railroads in the United States was done with little coordination, so that by 1860, there were seven different railroad gauges in the United States. The gauge with the largest installed base, a little over 50%, was 4’8 1/2” wide, while the second most popular gauge was 5’ wide. The 4’8 1/2” gauge was predominant in the North, while the 5’ gauge was predominant in the South. (Shapiro, 1999) Railroad gauge is an excellent low-tech example of what will be referred to in this paper as an open standard. For a standard to be open, it must satisfy the following conditions: