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The Forgotten Tale of Cartrivision's 1972 VCR
harrymcc writes: In 1972 -- years before Betamax and VHS -- a Silicon Valley startup called Cartrivision started selling VCRs built into color TVs. They offered movies for sale and rent -- everything from blockbusters to porn -- using an analog form of DRM, and also let you record broadcast TV. There was also an optional video camera. And it was a spectacular flop. Over at Fast Company, Ross Rubin tells the fascinating story of this ambitious failure.
If the first thing people do is say "in what way does this facilitate seeing boobies?", you're never going to get rid of it.
Well, we got rid of Cartrivision.
In case you're wondering, it was simply that only the rental store could rewind rental tapes (cartridges).
I bet that still didn't stop them from having a $1 "rewind fee" policy.
Sex doesn't make the world go 'round, though.
Sex makes the world move in a reciprocal motion.
That's why Microsoft was so successful: they let the market test ideas, and then stole, bought, or cloned only proven ideas.
When they did NOT follow this formula, such as for Bob, Zune, their first tablet, and Windows 8 tablet/desktop mishmash, they failed.
Funny that you mention Bob. Yes it was a failure... But one of the marketing team, Melinda French, did all right by it. ;) Also, Bob was ported into Office as the "Office Assistants" that created much derision, but also saw a lot of use with non-tech types. And the concept behind it, especially the heuristic learning of behavior tied to content, is what eventually became Cortina.
Eventually they'll be banning them because they will encourage the sexual objectification of robots.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.