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Lessons From the HD Format War

Posted by Zonk on from the don't-go-down-the-dark-path-forever-will-it-dominate dept.

mlimber writes "The New York Times' Freakonomics blog asks a panel of experts, 'Is the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray really over? What can we learn from it?' The panel suggests, among other things, that Sony achieved a Pyrrhic victory because high-def DVDs will be outmoded before they reap enough profits to make up for what they (and Toshiba) paid out for both product development and bribes to win the support of content providers."

1 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. Bad comparison by daBass · · Score: 4, Informative

    Are they really that similar?

    - AC vs. DC: Cheaper and better system won
    - VHS vs. BetaMax: Cheaper, worse system won
    - 8 Track vs. Cassette: cheaper, better system won. (though 8 Track was so retarded, it would have been hard to lose in any case)
    - BR vs. HDDVD: More expensive system won, without a real technological/quality advantage.

    So what could have been learned? What sony should have learned looking at the first three is "the cheaper always wins" and they should have packed up and left. Instead, Sony made a more expensive system and clobbered Toshiba with marketing. And won.