Beta, VHS, DVD — Are You The Next Failure?

Posted by RP

February 23, 2008

Jonathan Ledger had an interesting blog post a few days ago that I recommend you take a look at. Here’s an excerpt that caught my attention:

… Let’s extend that even further: Sony’s Blu-Ray has officially won the war against Toshiba’s HD DVD format. If Blu-Ray eventually replaces DVD, would the creation of the DVD have been a bad idea from the get-go? Of course not! Again, billions of dollars later, it was hardly a bad idea just because the future may turn a different way.

The same thing applies to your business. You want to have long term goals that take into consideration the winds of change, both with search engines and other traffic generation techniques. But you should also have short term goals that exercise the methods known that work right now…

How many people out there even remember Beta format video recorders? In most cases, those who still have tape machines refer to them a VHS, generically, the same way people will call a General Electric refrigerator a "Fridge" or a Mita copy machine a "Xerox". However there was once a multi-million dollar marketing war which resulted in the VHS format (by far the technically inferior of the two) "winning’ and becoming the de facto standard of home video tape.

So, before you go out and begin your on-line money making career, gotta stop and think and plan and analyze some more, right? Well, I don’t think so … but perhaps consider a couple things to throw into your analysis process while you are sitting back worrying about ‘backing the wrong horse’.

Beta was the first successful cassette tape format in the commercial TV world and then in the consumer world. The TV tape business was "owned" by a company called Ampex (their building is still for rent in Colorado Springs, last i checked). They made wonderful equipment, they were the standard of the world … and were priced accordingly. When the first Sony Beta cassettes hit the market place, industry insiders considered them a joke. "Who would ever gamble on some japanese toy like that?" was a frequent sentiment. S people analyzing the market, instead of recognizing superiority in technology, I am sure sat back and waited. there was virtually no Internet at that time, but if there had been, I’m sure a conservative business analysis would have "proven" that the time was not right to start a web venture involving beta technology.

OK, fast forward (pun intended) twenty years. The beta/VHS war is ancient history, in fact home video tape is fast becoming history … and all those cautious folk who listened to ‘reason’ rather than becoming early adopters have avoided failure … haven’t they?

A little research will show that even after all those yeas, Beta (under Sony’s trade name, U-matic) is still a huge player in the commercial TV market. An Internet search will also show sites successfully selling and profiting from blank beta tape cartridges, old copies of Beta productions, used .. and even new beta tape machines, etc.

Surely some people who went into the Beta business came to a sad end … but just as surely many did not. And one thing even more sure … those who had the opportunity to jump on the Beta trains as it was leaving the station … and did not … because they were still doing their ‘market analysis’ and still listening to the TV industry pundits who knew that a toy like Beta couldn’t go anywhere … 100% of those fence sitters made nothing.

So do you like the odds of maybe suffering some loss, or maybe hitting it big … or sitting on your behind and assuring, for certain, you make nothing? You pick the odds.

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