When is an industry association no longer any use? There are multiple answers – but in the case of the Digital Living Network Alliance or DLNA, or to use its original title back in 2003 – the Digital Home Working Group – we have made the case several times that it has never really been of use.
Back in 2003 we asked its first chairman what is was going to do to standardize on content protection – he said he would get back to us – we’re still waiting. In the end in 2012 the DLNA – which never makes standards, but agrees which ones it might use – embraced DTCP for stream protection, but even then, the industry had pretty much already endorsed it. Its only move since then is to take on board CVP2 – latterly called VidiPath – let consumers to view subscription TV on other devices like smart TVs, tablets and phones.
Effectively this was an initiative of CableLabs to natively support DTCP-IP stream security with an HTML5 UI, with video in MPEG DASH. And herein lies the rub, its effectiveness as an organization is all about its membership.
Apple was not so relevant in 2003, but it has become so today and it doesn’t see the benefit of an organization of its largest suppliers and competitors as agreeing what technology it should use. So, Apple ignores the DLNA. Now that was fine when it provided 1% of laptops, but not now it has 15% of the handset market and a far greater proportion of the market’s profit.
Interestingly it cow-towed to the handset market leader in 2004 when it was Nokia, and it joined, but insisted on a name change, because Digital Home offered little appeal to a device you use mostly out of the home.
Today Nokia is no longer a member, and a portion of the Japanese element, represented by Fujitsu is also gone. Instead the DLNA has the creeping influence of CableLabs and of cable operators TWC, Comcast and their direct suppliers Arris and chip player Broadcom and also Verizon. Operators have become more vocal about what standards they want to support, so the DLNA has been taken over by mostly US cable operators.
There’s not, Microsoft left, Thomson is out, ST Micro fell out of set tops, and Google and Cisco were never invited. The only members that were there at the beginning and still there at the end were Sony, Samsung and Panasonic, and today two are of declining influence and the other has entirely changed its revenue base to TVs and Phones.
The only part of its activity that will be carried on is certification to a list of adopted standard which will become increasingly less relevant. That will be carried on by some of its ex-staff running a venture called Spirespark International.
The DLNA said that it is folding because it had completed its mission making products seamlessly connected to one another and it says that some 4 billion shipments of certified products has been enabled, across 25,000 device models
Over the past few months we have seen the end of HomePlug, UpnP and the AllSeen Alliance, and wonder if perhaps it is a sign of the times, that no-one can afford to be members of alliances that deliver so little.