Stuart Howlette wrote:
> And minidiscs were set to replace tapes. Its all a little thing called
> marketing and bureacracy, you better learn that, nothing ever achieves its
> expectations in the format wars.
>
Actually the original history of MDs indicate that they were originally marketed
as a replacement for the CD. There were big posters, back then, of Michael
Jackson and all kinds of prerecorded MDs that were never actually available for
sale in the stores ("they could order them for you").
Sometimes in spite of the electronics industry trying to push you in a certain
direction (the same can be applied to any consumer item from clothing to decor
colors) the public actually rejects their proposals.
Many people insist that the quality of Beta is better than VHS, but VHS won.
Have you ever noticed that starting in the mid 80's suddenly everything was gray
and mauve with maybe a little teal thrown in. Well for about the past 10 years
before that it was earth tones.
When they came out with black faced audio components, they really caught on.
Suddenly no more brushed aluminum or gold and no brightly light gold back
lighting). They they tried to bring back the bright back lighting and do away
with black.
But whether it was the public that rejected it or the industry that reverted, in
a short time it was back to black components (and not wood trim-either real or
fake-in the case).
In the 70's dark wood trim was in. Even speakers were usually walnut. Then oak
suddenly took over. Go into a new house or office building. I'll bet you
almost always see oak trim. Now check out an older building that has ot be
renovated. American walnut.
Many factors hurt MD's growth. For one thing they released it too soon so that
they could compete with Phillips DCC (which was supported by Radio Shack). Home
DATs have never caught on. I've never seen anyone one walking around with a
DATman.
And compared to the DCC the Md is a huge success. Although it is possible that
there is a DCC-list like the MD-list on the net, I kind of doubt it.
At least we can still buy blanks and there is still the occasional new unit and
advance taking place in MDs. But Americans seem to love solid state. I can
find no other reason for the success of crap like the Rio.
We now have 3 competing non compatible solid state storage media, compact flash,
smart cards and Sony's The Stick (which I'd like to tell them where they can
stick it). I suspect that the actual memory in all of these is similar and that
it is only the physical characteristics of the case and pin arrangement that
differ.
If they can sell portable CD recorders for $15 (actual ad in my Sunday paper) I
find it hard to believe that they can't mass produce solid state memory for
about a dollar a Gig.
You can buy a VHS tape for less than a dollar! They seem to be a lot more
complex and the cost of the raw materials has to cost more than a memory chip.
Larry
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