The prestandard phase is the most exciting. This period is marked by tremendous innovation, high hopes, and grand ambition. “Aha!” ideas flow readily. Since there are no experts, everyone can compete, and it seems as if everyone does. Easy entry into the field draws myriad players. For instance, when telephone networks began, there were few standards and many contenders. In 1899, there were 2,000 local telephone firms in the American telephone network, many of them running with their own standards of transmission. In a similar vein, in the 1890s, electricity came in a variety of voltages and frequencies. Each local power plant chose one of many competing standards for electrical power. Transportation networks, ditto. As late in the railroad era as 1880, thousands of railway companies did not share a universal gauge.
It’s exactly what we’re living through today.
Google understood the importance of the prestandard phase and worked to establish dominance as the standard of search in an absurdly quick time frame. It’s a modern version of what occurred previously with the above examples illustrated by Kevin.
Twitter understands this too and is working to position themselves as the web-based SMS platform of choice. So far, they’re nearly unchallenged.
Many social networks have attempted to win the prestandard phase, and with each one we’ve heralded them champion and thought they would be the winner. Whether Facebook – the current winner – will maintain its ownership is yet to be seen although they seem positioned for it.
There is a free-for-all in so many other digital platforms and even Google and Twitter are in a sense prestandard. That’s because the web itself moves on accelerated time frames of birth and destruction — and the destruction aspect is very real.
If you’re in a market that is still prestandard thanks to recent innovations or shifts, you most likely can’t dream big enough. That is, if you want to be tomorrow’s standard.