As far as standards go, the 30 pin connector was very much a standard. Not the kind that's submitted to a standards body for ratification, but a market-determined one, adopted by shedloads of companies, just driven by the sheer number of devices in use. Sure, it's not the same thing you might think of in terms of interoperability, since no one else used it as the connector on their music players or phones (because that would be legal suicide). But it's still very much a standard.