Sony Betamax Vs. VHS

9 Pages 2280 Words

full year ahead of the competition, the VHS format. This occurance begs to ask the question, why did it not prosper when it had the entire market all to itself? Because it simply did not have the ability to record and playback video that appeals to most consumers who own television sets. In addition to this, the market at that time was actually big enough to allow many other rival products to succeed. Actually, in the early 1980s Video Cassette Recorders exceeded color televisions in not only sales but also became Japan’s number one consumer electronics product in production value at that time.
One characteristic that could have been the primary guilty party in the failure of Sony’s Betamax was the complete absence of any market research. A Sony executive at the time once announced that Sony does not get involved in marketing studies to assemble products. He stated that they only operated on the idea of increasing the number of people in their ranks that are working toward the same goals as themselves. With RCA beginning to contemplate an alliance with Sony, the executives at RCA began to conduct their own market research. It was discovered that consumers desired a tape capacity with at least a minimum of two hours before even thinking about a purchase of the system. This new need required by the consumer had revealed that one specific element of the Beta fell short, the minimal one hour capability. After this was shown to RCA, they decided to put off the production of any VCR until it found a partner they had the capability to produce the product at a high level and give it the ability to record video at a longer time.
Next I will discuss the product. In the VCR market, the story began with many earlier attempts in the development of products that used tape cartridges. Tapes were loaded at sharp angles, they were very heavy, the cases were bulky, and some tape players did not even record. The very first product that So...