The DDS/DAT Open Standard

From the outset, DAT and the DDS format was designed as an open industry standard.

What’s so great about an open standard?
Open industry standards promote a number of benefits for customers. These include:

 Faster development times – increased competition means that
    manufacturers battle to be “first to market” with new drives and
    new features

 Lower prices – economies of scale from multiple manufactures mean     that the cost of specific parts of the drive and media are gradually
    decreased. In addition, increased competition leads to ongoing price
    reductions

 Wider availability – an open standard leads to multiple suppliers of both
    drives and media covering a broader range of channels and geographies

 Compatibility and interchange – the DAT manufacturers group ensures
     that each manufacturer’s DAT drive is able to interchange data with other
     manufacturer’s DAT drives. Additionally, they ensure that two-generation
     backward compatibility is maintained

 Investment protection – customers are unlikely to be at the mercy of a
    single manufacturer’s fortunes