Sony pulls plug on Betamax

AP ^

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Most people that I have know that have had personal experience with OS2 say that it was superior to Windows. I guess that shows my CEO's typically come from Marketing and Sales rather then Engineering. It's not how good your mousetrap is, it's how well you market it. 'Nuff said.

[plain talk]

Yeah, Dittos. VHS vs Beta, Windows vs Mac, etc.

[mc5cents]

Yikes! I was just reading a thread on time travel and for a second there I thought I had traveled back in time!

[ElkGroveDan]

Does this mean they are going to stop making 8-track tape players now too???

[krb]

We had a Beta and used OS/2 starting with version 1.2, using it up until Windows NT 4.0 came out. Definitely an engineer household.

[Jumper]

I have a brand new condition (rebuilt) by Sony of the SL-2500 Betamax w/remote; still in the box as repaired! Cost more than my entire entertainment center did today in 1984 dollars!

[Poohbah]

Yeah, OS/2 was better than Windows.

So, in a fit of marketing non-expertise, IBM didn't port any of their apps to it.

In short, they didn't eat their own dogfood and drink their own Kool-Aid.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

If you were to compile a book entitled "Strategic blunders made by IBM" it would be a rather large volume. LOL.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

We had a Beta and used OS/2 starting with version 1.2, using it up until Windows NT 4.0 came out. Definitely an engineer household.

Cool. I am told that many banks still run their apps on OS/2 and also that many ATM's run OS/2 as well.

[Poohbah]

If you were to compile a book entitled "Strategic blunders made by IBM" it would be a rather large volume. LOL.

A guy I know who's been looking at the computing scene since the days of the IMSAI Altair 8080 described Microsoft vs. Everyone Else as being rather like Operation Desert Storm: Microsoft did nothing important wrong while their opposition did nothing at all right.

[Calvin Locke]

I went checking for the date of the article too.

[hopespringseternal]

Same for Amiga vs. PC.

That's why business types have zero respect for engineers. They know people are stupid enough to create a market for rubber dog sheet and fake vomit.

Why bother getting it right when you know you can sell anything?

[Calvin Locke]

In Sony's case, they would not allow porn to be ported to it. VHS, no problem. I wonder it that was the problem
with laser discs? I heard the VCR time on life support.

Back to the future with discs. Well recordable [DVD] discs. Or so says all the spam email I get.

[SoDak]

Though not as large as the one over at Xerox.

[Poohbah]

In Sony's case, they would not allow porn to be ported to it. VHS, no problem.

???????

Porn tapes were out on Betamax and VHS in the early days.

I wonder it that was the problem with laser discs?

Nope. Again, porn was available on laserdisc.

[Charles Martel]

I recall working retail back when I was in college. I set up a display of the then brand-new Beta Hi-Fi VCR. The department manager gave me a vacant, uncomprehending look when I asked if I could pull another audio receiver and a set of speakers to hook up to it. "What do you want to do THAT for?", he asked. :-)

I remember the demo tape that came with the Beta Hi-Fi machine, too. It had the Ride of the Valkries scene from Apocalypse Now, as well as a bunch of other stuff to show off the audio quality. There was a copy of an *old* (the first?) music video by Mike Nesmith on the tape, IIRC. It was an effective demo tape, though; it really blew the customers away.

I spent an awful lot of time on the phone, telling customers how to hook the things up.

[SoDak]

Banks run their accounting and db on Unix, but financial datacomm is still usually run on OS/2. A lot of the major vendors in financial datacomm used OS/2 and their support people don't want to learn any new tricks. I've had to support it from time to time, it's not a bad OS.

[Wm Bach]

Yeah, Dittos. VHS vs Beta, Windows vs Mac, etc.

Harley vs Honda...

[Calvin Locke]

Never saw a laser disc, except for some arcade video game that touted itself as having it.

I read an article about Sony fighting the porn industry tooth & nail. Maybe they caved in when they saw the sales figures of porn tapes.