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Why VHS Was Better
otis wildflower writes "An article in the UK's Guardian describes why, in the end, VHS is better than Betamax. While this may not be terribly useful knowledge on its own, the author then makes a pretty convincing case that viewing something's success or failure purely on technical merit is not an entirely accurate way of looking at things. For better or for worse, success of new products and technologies is determined by a broad range of factors that make up "the whole product", quality being only one, and possibly a minor one at that. Kind of explains what happened to the Atari Lynx and Jaguar, dunnit?"
BETA != BETAMAX
Betamax was an excellent format for broadcast quality on site cameras (as stated in the article)... Beta is also a good format, but not nearly as good as betamax
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
A "Single Flaw", like having tapes that only last one hour, can doom an entire product.
No matter how well thought-out/designed/engineered everything else about the product may be.
VHS won because it gave people more of less, in a way. Just like McDonalds makes money hand over fist serving "food" that would make a french chef gag. :)
Thanks for that enlightenment. I think I now understand Microsoft's success. :)