if Sony had been around earlier - format wars

Sony is just a Corporation that manufactures products. They can't and don't make you purchase their products. It seems to me that Sony develops new products that they think offers better performance/features than what is available in the market, and they hope the comsumer will agree and purchase millions of them so Sony can recoup their R&D cost and make a profit.

I can't imagine how boring the world would be if companies did not develop and produce new products that enhanced whatever market they are in. If no one ever tried something new, your car would have wheels that still fit in those Roman wagon wheel ruts.......

Enjoy,

TIC

Fact is . . . Beta, SACD, and Blue Ray were (are) all the superior technology, compared to the competitors. VHS, DVD-A, and HD-DVD are all inferior in various ways. I think Sony fails in its marketing, much as Apple, with a superior operating system to Microsoft, failed to establish itself as the dominant system due to a lack of insight into successful marketing.

Well put Mr.TIC.----Over at avsforum there are plenty of Sony bashers.(I went with HD-DVD because of the price.) Truth be known there are many of their concepts that get improved on but they did the R&D to start with. They have been the yardstick for many,many years.--And collect the royalties from others using their efforts. Making money keeps the wheels turning. The size of the ruts is not under their control. (But I'm sure they're working on it.)

When forced to choose, superior technology doesn't stand a chance against convenience.