Why VHS Was Better Than Betamax 298
Vladimir Kornea writes "This article argues that 'when someone buys and uses a product, the technological aspects are a small and often uninteresting part of the decision' and that the when the 'whole product' (a term commonly used among marketing people) is considered, VHS was better than Betamax, and that the Wintel PC is better than the alternatives." Update: 01/29 04:26 GMT by T : Apologies for the dupe.
DUPE! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Oh, COME ON, this is sad.... (Score:3, Insightful)
This time, it's even pointing to the same exact article, not just the same story covered by someone else
A new all-time slashdot low...
Model T Ford (Score:5, Insightful)
This just in!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
At least, that's what they say in the FAQ. I suggest the people that whine about dupes read it. Heck, if it's a dupe story, don't read it. You've already read it. Go to next story. Big whooping deal.
It's not like all the slashdot stories reside in databases on OUR systems. It's their database. If they want to have redundant data in it (a.k.a. dupe stories), let them.
Why Beta Lost... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Model T Ford (Score:4, Insightful)
If the whole product includes the network externalities involved with purchasing the dominant product, which is the argument that the author makes about 'Wintel PCs', then the superior technology is by definition the winning technology, and vice versa. I think we still want and need to separate out technological issues from the strategic marketing decisions. The "whole product" concept does not prove that an inferior technology cannot prevail in the marketplace, it simply defines the possibility out of existence.
annmariabell.com [annmariabell.com]
Re:Perhaps this article can also explain (Score:3, Insightful)
In this article the author is trying to claim that the percieved wisdom of Betamax being "better" (instance #2) is wrong, which makes for a decent opening, but is still incorrect. On the grounds that they have chosen to disprove Betamax is still better, as it is the superior technical format. All they have done is claimed that VHS has added value to the consumer that makes it more desirable and thus "better" (instance #1). Not exactly a complex argument that requires more than a few sentences.
Interestingly enough what it really attempts to do is prove the same form of common wisdom that the article is so intent on claiming is true. Afterall, who hasn't known that VHS succeeded because it had more tapes available to rent and held more?
Re:Perhaps this article can also explain (Score:4, Insightful)
Kuro5hin is chock-a-block full of flamebait articles - it's purpose is to incite pointless psuedo-intellectual pissing contests.
Slashdot's purpose is to provide links to news and articles of interest - if you want to discuss them here you can.
Slashdot is phenomenally popular because it provides something that huge numbers of people want.
Kuro5hin isn't, because it doesn't.
You may think your argument is exactly the same as the one being made in the article, but your argument is a bloody stupid one, and totally irellevant to the discussion.
Why not just piss off back to K5 and have an 'intellegant' discussion or whatever it is you think you're doing.
Popularity and quality are two different things (Score:2, Insightful)
The intelligent thing to do is simply to point out that VHS was more popular than betamax. The mistake is to confuse popularity with quality. They are actually two different things.
Re:Why it was better.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Weak arguements (Score:3, Insightful)
DAT comment in the article (Score:1, Insightful)
The Guardian article had this paragraph about DAT:
"Let's take a simple example: digital audio tape (Dat). Get someone to compare Dat with a humble C90 compact cassette and they will find Dat to be technologically superior, especially for recording music. However, if you consider "the whole product", Dat is vastly inferior for most people most of the time. This is why people still buy millions of cassettes, while Dat has virtually disappeared from consumer use."
I don't think Schofield understands the DAT failure at all. He argues that it failed because it was inferior to C90s on a "whole product" basis. That's just bunk. In no way was it inferior to analog tape as a "whole product", except maybe the Serial Copy Management Scheme (if I remember the name). It failed because it was inferior to *Compact Disc* as a "whole product". There was no motivation to start collecting new releases in yet another digital format, and I think the phenomenon of taping one's music for archival purposes really declined after CDs became popular. So the only application was for creating mix tapes, or for recording live performances. And I think that cut way down on the demand for any new tape-based medium.
Now we've got MP3 or Ogg and the random access they provide, which of course is better (from a "whole product" stance) than any tape-based medium can be.
Re:Model T Ford (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Model T Ford (Score:5, Insightful)
The market chooses what the market WANTS.
According to some definitions of product, including the "whole product" idea used in the article, a "good product" is a product that matches the market demands.
In that sense, the "best product" is the one that gives the market what it wants, and by the nature of the market, the dominant players tend to do that in a free market.
That doesn't mean the product is "better" from a technical, moral, or whatever other point of view you want, except from the point of view that it meets the desires of consumers.
The consumers might want inefficient vehicles, lousy paperback novels, kitschy pop culture or education aimed at the attention span of a 3-year-old on a glucose overdose. That doesn't mean that they're better vehicles, literature, culture or education, but if the public is more willing to pay for those, by definition they're better "products".
Re:Model T Ford (Score:2, Insightful)
"Their spouses/children/grandparents and everybody else would quickly have told them the truth. "We're going out tonight and I want to record a movie. That Betamax tape is useless: it isn't long enough. Get rid of it."
because it says here:
"All of the video machines in use and all of the pre-recorded movies were Betamax. It had a de facto monopoly, and an element of lock-in (because of tape incompatibilities). It lost because, at the time, it could not do what consumers wanted: record a whole movie unattended."
how is it possible that 100% of pre-recorded MOVIES were on Beta, yet Beta tapes weren't long enough to record an entire MOVIE?
I think the author of this article is fucked in the head.
I've still got a Sony C9...
What decision? (Score:3, Insightful)
Freedom to choose hasn't occurred yet.
He is saying the popular device is the better device, Which is better ? A Toyota or a Aston Martin? Well they sure do sell allot more Toyotas.
If I never hear this again I... (Score:2, Insightful)