text from article
Sony's Betamax to be laid to rest Tokyo August 28 2002
Sony has closed the final chapter of its legendary battle to dominate the home videotape machine market, announcing it would discontinue its Betamax VCRs.
Sony will stop manufacturing Betamax machines at the end of this year as the company refocuses its efforts on new technologies dominating the market, Sony spokeswoman Shoko Yanagizawa said yesterday.
The announcement marks the end of a 27-year run, during which the fabled brand sold 18 million units worldwide in a race against archrival Victor's VHS to set the video format standard.
Betamax was first to the market, hitting stores in 1975, and peaked with global sales of 2.3 million units in 1984.
But the decision not to share its technology with rival companies proved to be Sony's fatal mistake.
In a classic case of the underdog winning the race, Victor's VHS - short for Video Home System - had clearly won the battle by the mid-80s.
The technology, used now in millions of video recorders around the world, is Victor's.
Yanagizawa said the decision pointed to a new era of digital video discs, or DVDs, and other advanced digital technologies that were making the video cassette obsolete.
Even VHS hasn't been enough for Victor.
The company lost money two of the last three fiscal years and is forecasting losses for the year that ended March 31.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Totaro" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 1:43 PM
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Re: How far is IAX to be a Standard
Sure I remember. Up until a year ago I believe it was still being manufactured and supported by Sony.
Their mistake was keeping proprietary. A parallel cannot be drawn. If anything, you prove my point in that VHS was the underdog and won the battle.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/28/1030053075578.html?oneclick=true
----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Cotton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Asterisk List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 1:28 PM
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Re: How far is IAX to be a Standard
On Mon, 2004-11-01 at 13:20 -0500, Brent Franks wrote:
Not old enough to remember this, but wasn't Beta better than VHS?
Yes and professional equipment used it.
-- Dave Cotton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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