"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
Trevor Wilson wrote:
"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
Trevor Wilson wrote:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/19/tech...ney_technology


I told you so.

Trevor Wilson
Makes a change for Sony to win a format war. ;-)

**BTW: More than 20 years production of the Beta system can hardly be
regarded as failure. Nor can many other Sony innovations. Trinitron
picture tubes, Walkmans, et al. Like any company engaged in high
technology, they can be expected to stumble once in awhile. I guess the
bigger the company, the bigger and more embarrassing the stumbles.

I was thinking that Beta only ever had a small part of the market, even
though it was produced for a long time,

**A mistake many people make. Apple only have a small part of the computer
market, compared to PCs. However, they are one of the largest single
manufacturers of personal computers. Same deal with Beta machines. There was
only small number of manufacturers of Beta machines and a large number of
VHS manufacturers. Sony, however, was still one of the largest (and,
presumably, most profitable) manufacturers of video recorders.

MiniDv & VHS-C have mostly seen
off Digital 8 & the other 8mm tape formats, the Walkman used the Philips
Compact Cassette, & so on. I wouldn't say that Trinitron was a format as
such, although it did give a better picture than shadowmask, if you could
live with the shadow of the wires. Oh, & I know DVD was *partly* created
by Sony.

**As was the Compact DiskT. One should never write-off Sony as a serious
innovator.

Trevor Wilson