Editing Standardization (section)

===Effect on consumers===
Standardization has a variety of benefits for consumers, but one of the greatest benefits is enhanced network effects. Standards increase compatibility and interoperability between products, allowing information to be shared within a larger network and attracting more consumers to use the new technology, further enhancing network effects.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shapiro|first=Carl|title=Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy|url=https://archive.org/details/informationrules00shap_752|url-access=limited|date=1999|publisher=Harvard Business School Press|location=Boston, Mass|page=[https://archive.org/details/informationrules00shap_752/page/n236 229]|author2=Hal R. Varian |isbn=9780875848631 }}</ref> Other benefits of standardization to consumers are reduced uncertainty, because consumers can be more certain that they are not choosing the wrong product, and reduced lock-in, because the standard makes it more likely that there will be competing products in the space.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shapiro|first=Carl|title=Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy|url=https://archive.org/details/informationrules00shap_752|url-access=limited|date=1999|publisher=Harvard Business School Press|location=Boston, Mass|page=[https://archive.org/details/informationrules00shap_752/page/n237 230]|author2=Hal R. Varian |isbn=9780875848631 }}</ref> Consumers may also get the benefit of being able to mix and match components of a system to align with their specific preferences.<ref name="Shapiro 1999 233">{{cite book|last=Shapiro|first=Carl|title=Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy|url=https://archive.org/details/informationrules00shap_752|url-access=limited|date=1999|publisher=Harvard Business School Press|location=Boston, Mass|page=[https://archive.org/details/informationrules00shap_752/page/n240 233]|author2=Hal R. Varian |isbn=9780875848631 }}</ref> Once these initial benefits of standardization are realized, further benefits that accrue to consumers as a result of using the standard are driven mostly by the quality of the technologies underlying that standard.<ref>J. Gregory Sidak, ''The Value of a Standard Versus the Value of Standardization'', 68 BAYLOR L. REV. at 3 (Forthcoming 2016), https://www.criterioneconomics.com/the-value-of-a-standard-versus-the-value-of-standardization.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161010215246/https://www.criterioneconomics.com/the-value-of-a-standard-versus-the-value-of-standardization.html |date=2016-10-10 }}.</ref>

Probably the greatest downside of standardization for consumers is lack of variety. There is no guarantee that the chosen standard will meet all consumers' needs or even that the standard is the best available option.<ref name="Shapiro 1999 233"/> Another downside is that if a standard is agreed upon before products are available in the market, then consumers are deprived of the penetration pricing that often results when rivals are competing to rapidly increase market share in an attempt to increase the likelihood that their product will become the standard.<ref name="Shapiro 1999 233"/> It is also possible that a consumer will choose a product based upon a standard that fails to become dominant.<ref>Cowan, Robin. "High Technology and the Economics of Standardization." Paper presented at the International Conference on Social and Institutional Factors Shaping Technological Development: Technology at the Outset, Berlin, Germany, May 27–28, 1991. p. 20.</ref> In this case, the consumer will have spent resources on a product that is ultimately less useful to him or her as the result of the standardization process.