Posted by Kevin Gerbil on 06/07/06 14:44

mike wrote:

> Any moron with half a brain knows (or should that be knew) that Betamax was
> a superior quality product to VHS. Of course, VHS was peddled more
> successfully than Betamax, hence for many years until DVD came along we were
> saddled with a second-rate tape system. More popular does not mean better.

VHS wasn't 'peddled more successfully' - it was simply that a better
selection of films were available on VHS than on Beta.

Sony bought Columbia Pictures as a direct result - the idea being now
they would always have one film studio releasing content on whatever
format they made.

But they would have done better to learn a different lesson - that
agreeing on one format with your competitors FIRST makes things a lot
clearer for the customer. If you go ahead with a war, the best product
won't necessarily win, and being part of a success is better than
owning all of a failure.

I understand that Philips let the competition in on CD, to establish it
as a single dominant format. That seems to me a better way to go, but I
suppose Sony would rather take the gamble...

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