stekas@hou2g.UUCP (J.STEKAS) (01/25/84)
There is an obvious reason for buying into BETA format - SONY quality.
SONY has led all consumer electronics manufacturers in innovation
and quality. If you had a 25" Trinitron with stereo would you buy
an XYZ brand VHS machine for it?
Just a thought,
Jimcustead@sask.UUCP (01/27/84)
There was a full page article in the January 16, 1984 edition of TIME entitled "Max Troubles for Betamax". (subtitle -- Sony struggles as its videotape-recorder market slides away.) I am not about to type in the whole thing but here are the key lines... (copied without permission, etc...) ----------------------- Japan's Sony Corp. has long boasted that it is "the one and only." But that confident advertising slogan now is beginning to sound hollow... Sony's troubles stem from a disastrous slump in sales of its Betamax videotape recorder...Last week Zenith announced that it would no longer sell Sony's machine under its brand name. Zenith thus joins companies such as Toshiba and NEC that have abandoned Sony's videotape system in favor the VHS method....Says one industry watcher in Tokyo: "Zenith's move means the demolition of the Sony-led Beta group." Says...[another] industry analyst..."The longer Sony sticks with Betamax, the more severely it'll get beaten." ------------------------- There is a graphic accompanying the article showing Beta market share monotonically decreasing from 100% in 1975 to 25% in 1983. (Any curve-fitting program would predict 1984 market share to be < 25%.) Of course TIME is a foreign publication :-) so take this as you will. By the way, I notice in the marketplace one can now buy Sony brand VHS tapes. Verrrry Interesting...... A view from the North Larry Custead univ of saskatchewan
ralph@inuxc.UUCP (01/28/84)
I cann't buy into the Sony is best just because it's a Sony line of thought. The best consumer video monitors on the market today are not made by Sony. (Then who, you ask? Well, I think Proton, but...) Sony's "Profeel" (or is that Profield?) systems are overpriced and just not up to the quality of NEC, Proton, and even (shock) Fisher. This is not to say that Sony makes bad products. I happen to be a big fan of some of Sony's other products, but I just don't think you can make a flat statement like if it says Sony, it's the best. Ralph Keyser ...!inuxc!ralph