BETAMAX vs. VHS parallel to Blu-ray vs. HD DVD

[ReduxInflux]

when i went back to what happened with VHS and BETAMAX in the early 80's, i found that Blu-Ray's technical superiority parallels BetaMax, but their success parallels VHS. It is the inverse for HD-DVD. Check it out:


"Sony introduced the Betamax home video system in 1975 with the LV-1901 Trinitron/Betamax console. It was the most popular video format in 1983, gaining almost a third of the UK video recorder market, while Sanyo's VTC5000 was the top selling UK video recorder. By 1985, however, the market had turned sharply towards VHS...

The VHS format's defeat of the Betamax format became a classic marketing case study. Sony's ability to dictate an industry standard backfired when JVC, and parent Matsushita, made the tactical decision to forego Sony's offer of Betamax in favor of JVC's VHS technology. They felt that it would end up like U-Matic deal: Sony dominating, and they get the scraps. By 1984, forty companies utilized the VHS format in comparison with Beta's twelve. Sony finally conceded defeat in 1988 when it too began producing VHS recorders. However, Sony may be said to have had some small consolation in this saga as its Video-8 small-format videotape is essentially a scaled-down version of the Betamax, and Video-8 dominated the home camcorder format for the next 15 years with the rival VHS-C format, until both formats were rendered obsolete by the digital MiniDV standard."


But I was just an infant during all of this, so my knowledge only drinks from the fountain of the textbook. For those of you who have a more intimate understanding of this and how it parallels (or doesn't) our current Blu-Ray/HD-DVD situation, I would love to hear your thoughts...