Cynical Capitalist

Format Wars

Betamax
The VHS format's defeat of the Betamax format became a classic marketing case study. Sony's attempt to dictate an industry standard backfired when JVC made the tactical decision to forgo Sony's offer of Betamax in favor of developing their own technology. By 1980, JVC's VHS format controlled 70% of the North American market.
By 1984, forty companies utilized the VHS format in comparison with Beta's twelve. Sony finally conceded defeat in 1988 when it, too, began producing VHS recorders (under license from Hitachi).

LaserDisc
LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Although the format was capable of offering higher-quality video and audio than its consumer rivals, the VHS and Betamax videocassette systems, Laserdisc never managed to gain widespread use in North America, largely owing to high costs for the players and the video titles themselves.

HD-DVD
HD DVD (short for High-Definition/Density DVD) is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video. Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format. However, in February 2008, after a protracted high definition optical disc format war with rival Blu-ray Disc, Toshiba abandoned the format, announcing it would no longer develop or manufacture HD DVD players or drives.

<< Back to Portfolio next