about triple E tactics...

In relation to open standards, the Triple E or the EEE can be taken advantage by some vendors because it has been said that it can avoid vendor lock-in. This three E is Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish. In some cases, some vendors tried to make the most of open standards to their own with a view to lock in customers to their products by setting up these triple E tactics.


Embrace
Like what Hanna explained, it supports a particular open standard and it then applies the standards in its product and promotes them.

Extend
In implementation of the standard, the vendor add some enhancements to its original specification asserting that it is needed to address the needs of the customer in which it can make difference from other competitors. But it is usually made in areas where the specifications are not well distinct. But if ever the standard has scope for different implementation to distinguish itself, improved implementation should be done in which a necessary implementation can still interoperate with it.

Extinguish
In this case, if the improved presentation or execution of the standard turns out to be so generally used that majority of implementations support it, instead it effectively becomes the de facto standard. The vendor has now basically take control that open standard and made it proprietary.

According to Nah Soo Hoe
“A vendor that is using EEE tactics will not ensure this and as a result, products from other sources may not be now compatible with this vendor's products. The problem really arises if the vendor's products are widely used. If that is the case, other implementations of the standard may have to be modified so as to make them compatible with this enhanced implementation since the latter is dominant.”