WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 As much as they may pretend to hate each other, rival tech companies often do have incentives 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:07.000 to work together. This tends to happen when both companies stand 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:10.000 to benefit from it, and while that sounds obvious, 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:13.000 this kind of collaboration has also benefited you. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:17.000 The poor consumer doesn't want to deal with 40 kinds of connectors for your laptop. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:22.000 Ever heard of USB-C? That's right, I'm talking about standards. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:25.000 Technologies that remain consistent across platforms 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:28.000 so you can have a smooth experience no matter what you're using. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:32.000 We're talking HDMI, USB, HTML. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:35.000 These standards have made it possible to connect gadgets 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:40.000 or view webpages anywhere in the world, no matter who manufactured them or what browser you're using. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.000 But how do companies that often exist as fierce rivals 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:47.000 band together to create and maintain these standards? 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:52.000 Like survivors in a zombie apocalypse. Sometimes, the problem that they're all trying to deal with 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:55.000 is the fact that there's no standardization. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:59.000 This is exactly what happened with USB. It was pretty clear in the early 90s that there were going 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.000 to be large numbers of new computer users in the near future, 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.000 but one of the major hurdles to widespread adoption 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:09.000 and consumers viewing the PC as a platform that was friendly to novices was that 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:12.000 everything required a separate connector 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:16.000 and some kind of software configuration, usually meaning you had to install drivers 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:21.000 from a floppy disk for every little thing. So an engineer from Intel came up with the idea for USB, 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:24.000 but it required multiple companies to get off the ground. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:31.000 Intel helped build chips that would power USB while IBM and Compact designed actual systems around it, 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:35.000 and Microsoft collaborated with making the standard electrically suitable for peripherals 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:40.000 like the mice they were trying to sell. USB's subsequent explosion in popularity did indeed 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.000 make the PC more accessible to average users as a result, 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:46.000 and today, over a thousand companies are members 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:51.000 of the USB Implementers Forum, which is helpful in ensuring USB continues to work well 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:54.000 across a huge range of devices. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:57.000 The USB logo on a product also helps consumers 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.000 understand the product will simply work a certain way. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:03.000 Kind of like how Vesa Display HDR tries to let you know 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:09.000 the screen will get up to a certain brightness, even if it might not be real HDR. 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:13.000 Those are for the elites. But sometimes, standards come about as a result 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:16.000 of a smaller number of companies trying to get a leg up 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:19.000 on their competition. This is how Bluetooth originated, 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.000 as it was a collaboration between IBM and Ericsson. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:27.000 Both companies were struggling in the mobile market as IBM's laptops and Ericsson's phones 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:31.000 weren't the hottest sellers. These two companies wanted to work together 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:34.000 to build a cell phone inside of a laptop, 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.000 but because this would have been a power hog at the time, 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.000 Bluetooth was created to link a phone and a laptop 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.000 over short distances. By making Bluetooth an open standard, 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:47.000 they could position their new products as some of the first to incorporate a technology 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:51.000 they hoped would become popular. And that it did. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:56.000 IBM introduced a ThinkPad in 2001 that became the first Bluetooth-enabled laptop, 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:01.000 while Motorola took advantage of the open standard and introduced Bluetooth to a large portion 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.000 of the American cell phone market. Of course, sometimes standards come about as a way 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.000 to be anti-consumer as well. HDMI is a good example of this, 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.000 which might sound a little strange, as it's pretty convenient. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.000 Before HDMI, you might have needed nine different cables 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:20.000 for an HD picture and surround sound, and now you only need one. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:23.000 But the goal of HDMI wasn't just to untangle your AV setup. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:26.000 It was to help content providers prevent copyright infringement 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:30.000 through a baked-in technology called HDCP. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:34.000 Several competing movie studios were reluctant to release high-def content, 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:38.000 which they viewed as ripe for piracy, without some kind of protection scheme. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.000 Obviously, the company's manufacturing HDMI-enabled hardware 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:44.000 wanted their customers to actually be able to watch 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.000 HD content, so companies like Panasonic, Phillips, 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:50.000 and Sony, all of whom competed against each other 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:53.000 in the home theater realm, formed the HDMI Forum, 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:56.000 which today consists of several dozen companies 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:01.000 that help develop the standard to ensure it keeps up with the growing bandwidth needs of ever-higher-res audio 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:04.000 and video, though the HDCP handshake is still far 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:08.000 from a perfect process. I guess we might as well make Try Turning It Off 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:11.000 and Back On Again, an official part of the standard. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:15.000 That's right, everybody. That was a tech-quickie. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:18.000 Thanks for watching. Like the video if you liked it. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:21.000 If you disliked it, it's that one. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:25.000 Check out our other videos. We'll add comment below with video suggestions, 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:27.000 and don't forget to subscribe and follow.