CES: IT giants pledge to support open standards

The electronics industry must embrace open standards so that entertainment devices and services work without fuss for consumers - or face failure.

Sony president Sir Howard Stringer delivered the warning in his address at the beginning of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"We have to support open technology because these systems are winning the game. Consumers expect choice and the success of services that are open to development, along with the rise of Linux, shows that companies which do not will fall away," said Sir Howard.

This sentiment echoed around the convention as vendors pushed innovation as a solution to the problems caused by the global recession.

Patrick Barry, vice president of product management at Yahoo, said consumers would no longer tolerate products and services that defined what they could and could not get access to.

"We hope to bring the values of the cinematic internet to the emerging world of connected TV: ease of use, the ability to customise and, most importantly, open platforms."

Yahoo was announced as a partner by device manufacturers including Samsung, LG and Toshiba to provide services to televisions that can connect to the internet wirelessly.

Yahoo's Widget engine, already popular on home computers, will give consumers the means to customise and display on their TV information from the internet along with music, videos and songs from the home PC on their TVs.

"Along with Samsung, we share a philosophy of openness to allow developers ready access to consumers, so that they in turn can choose the content they want, not just what is given to them," said Mr Barry.

Panasonic joined the call for openness as it called for a new standard for 3D high definition, so that film makers along with TV and Blu-ray manufacturers could bring this new entertainment technology to living rooms.

Microsoft, which has faced criticism from those seeking to promote open standards in the past, said that often the best ideas came from the wider developer community and partners and acknowledged their contribution to the success of Windows.

"The 'special sauce' of Windows was the realisation that there were so many innovative companies out there," said Ballmer.