VHS machines were cheaper too. Prior to digital tape, the only place I ever saw or used a beta machine was in a TV studio. Beta was actually higher quality. Able to do a side by side comparison, the difference between Beta and VHS were very noticeable. Video recorded to VHS appears more "smudged" than Beta, which appears more sharp, but over time, like audio cassettes of the time, they all begin to lose their quality, as the tape itself slowly deteriorates but if it's not handled properly that process takes less time.
Today we have a battle over HD-DVD vs BlueRay for high definition format. There doesn't seem to be a compelling player in the mix to push one format over the other yet.
Once the industry adopts a standard, one of the two will die the same death Beta did.
Betacam/Beta SP is not the same as the consumer Betamax format. They share a name and a general tape shape, but that's it. You can't play your old Betamax tapes in a Beta SP deck.
Once the industry adopts a standard, one of the two will die the same death Beta did.
Possibly, but I think it will take a longer time to sort things out than it did with tape. I don't know about the physics of it, but my theory is that players will emerge that can handle both formats. Once that happens, the format wars will become irrelevant for most consumers, and it'll eventually shake out based on the economics of manufacturing.