What About The Customer?

The folks over at ZDNet UK are getting pretty cranky about the state of things in the wireless industry, decrying pointless standards fights and saying it needs to have more respect for its customers. They point to the fighting over the UWB standard, which has resulted in two incompatible versions coming to market, the perennial jumping of the gun in WiFi standards where vendors release all sorts of "Pre-X" hardware that may or may not end up being compatible with other gear and also the proliferation of various 3G standards. The underlying question is just how long the industry will keep poking its customers in the eye -- but as long as they can get away with it, it's hard to see much change.