Whether in TV, mobile phones or railways, disruption is as old as history

What you need to know:

  • Winners were not necessarily the ‘better’ ones, but those that were marketed better, were cheaper, simpler to use or easier to integrate.
  • The  East African battle between narrow gauge versus standard gauge  railway will soon be joined by another in the electricity field, that of direct current vs alternating current.
  • Like with digital television, issues of inter-operability seem to have been left to the consumer or market to decide.

The ongoing debate over TV signals has been portrayed as quite confusing.

On one side are three television stations who would like to broadcast digital signals on their terms, and on the other side is a regulator who has set a format that the three are disputing.

Away from the many issues in the Kenya television case, there is room for a discussion on disruption, formats, and standardisation, which are the core issues being raised

History and business school casebooks are full of many examples of battles that now seem archaic but which were pivotal or fatal for companies.

Today you can chose a phone that’s Android or Apple or Windows and not have to worry over the consequences. There was a time, though, when different companies offered products and technology formats that their customers had to choose to adopt, and in the process, lose out on other competing goodies.

Wikipedia lists several format wars in history, and the winners were not necessarily the ‘better’ ones, but those that were marketed better, were cheaper, simpler to use or easier to integrate. 

This script plays out in CDMA v. GSM, Mac v. PC, Laser disks v. Video Discs, Commodore v. Atari, AM radio v. FM radio, DCC v. Minidisc, Iomega v. CD-R, DVD v. DIVX, Sirius v. XM radio, 8-track v. cassette, HDDVD v. Blu-Ray and Betamax v. VHS.

NARROW GAUGE V. STANDARD GAUGE

In these cases, whichever side seemed to be winning would then attract the undecided and vanquish the opposing company and format.

Today, there are a half-dozen electrical socket formats I’ve seen in South Africa, the United States, Italy, etc., that are a mystery for travellers to sort when they arrive. 

There are countries that drive on the left, largely British colonies, and many more - about 65 per cent of all countries - that drive on the right. The origin of these rules, according to Wikipedia, can be traced back to ancient traditions that governed the movement of horses or soldiers.

In Africa, such decisions were enforced made by colonial masters: driving on the left for British and Portuguese colonies, and on the right for the French and German ones.

But even long-forgotten format disputes that seem to have been decided as far back as the 19th century can still come up hundreds of years later. The  East African battle between narrow gauge versus standard gauge railway will soon be joined by another in the electricity field, that of direct current versus alternating current. Watch this space.

PIONEER BOWS OUT

On standardisation, this is not the first time that the Kenyan government has imposed standardisation rules. A recent example is the valves attached to LPG gas cylinders. Before, this particular brand of gas cylinders could only be obtained by exchanging them with empty ones of the same brand. 

Aside from TV, there’s a bigger battle shaping up in Kenya in the space of payment systems. The move by the government to mandate that public transport vehicles shift to cashless fare systems has set off a battle of global and local titans in banking, transport, payments, and communication sectors. 

As with digital television, issues of inter-operability seem to have been left to the consumer or market to decide. It’s bruising, and just yesterday, we heard that the pioneer in this space, BebaPay, from Google and Equity Bank, is bowing out of the race. 

When we look back in 2030 at the digital TV wars of 2015, what will Wikipedia or the Sheng dictionary read?

Twitter: @bankelele