You should use existing options that someone else has already fought.
http://assimp.sourceforge.net/ Open Asset Import Library supports a huge amount of formats.
http://openctm.sourceforge.net/ A very nice LZMA based mesh compression system with SDK's.
Also, "industry" usually use what they have in their toolset. Collada is common, FBX is common, Proprietary formats even more so. Some studios use .MAX directly, maya scenes directly. Alot of studios also go for transport formats (see opaque data, and such) where the animation software is extended via tools and plugins to feature the game ready tools, instead of working backwards from a mesh format.
For example, Naughty Dog use Maya exclusively as their main 3d content tool See this link : http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?linkID=10225710&id=7670571&siteID=123112