[Asterisk-Users] Re: How far is IAX to be a Standard

[Steve Totaro]

text from article

Sony's Betamax to be laid to rest
Tokyo
August 28 2002





Sony has closed the final chapter of its legendary battle to dominate the 
home videotape machine market, announcing it would discontinue its Betamax 
VCRs.

Sony will stop manufacturing Betamax machines at the end of this year as the 
company refocuses its efforts on new technologies dominating the market, 
Sony spokeswoman Shoko Yanagizawa said yesterday.

The announcement marks the end of a 27-year run, during which the fabled 
brand sold 18 million units worldwide in a race against archrival Victor's 
VHS to set the video format standard.

Betamax was first to the market, hitting stores in 1975, and peaked with 
global sales of 2.3 million units in 1984.

But the decision not to share its technology with rival companies proved to 
be Sony's fatal mistake.


In a classic case of the underdog winning the race, Victor's VHS - short for 
Video Home System - had clearly won the battle by the mid-80s.

The technology, used now in millions of video recorders around the world, is 
Victor's.

Yanagizawa said the decision pointed to a new era of digital video discs, or 
DVDs, and other advanced digital technologies that were making the video 
cassette obsolete.

Even VHS hasn't been enough for Victor.

The company lost money two of the last three fiscal years and is forecasting 
losses for the year that ended March 31.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Totaro" <asterisk at totarotechnologies.com>
To: "Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion" 
<asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 1:43 PM
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Re: How far is IAX to be a Standard


> Sure I remember.  Up until a year ago I believe it was still being 
> manufactured and supported by Sony.
>
> Their mistake was keeping proprietary.  A parallel cannot be drawn.  If 
> anything, you prove my point in that VHS was the underdog and won the 
> battle.
>
> http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/28/1030053075578.html?oneclick=true
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Dave Cotton" <dcotton at linuxautrement.com>
> To: "Asterisk List" <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
> Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 1:28 PM
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Re: How far is IAX to be a Standard
>
>
>> On Mon, 2004-11-01 at 13:20 -0500, Brent Franks wrote:
>>
>>> Not old enough to remember this, but wasn't Beta better than VHS?
>>>
>>
>> Yes and professional equipment used it.
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Dave Cotton <dcotton at linuxautrement.com>
>>
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