Whether one likes porn or not, there is an industry that exists which operates in a market that is massively popular. At the same time Sony are entering into a virtually identical video format battle to that which they lost to VHS two decades ago.
Sony Blu-ray versus Toshiba HD-DVD is where the battleground lies, and, if the argument in this article in The Inquirer is right, it will be porno that dictates who wins the battle. For it is, apparently, Sony's stated policy not to allow their format to be used for porn distribution - something they also did with Betamax. In that previous case the market spoke and Betamax died.
There is though a major difference this time round, as the Inquirer points out. This time the battle also has the presence of the Internet in the mix. The Internet provides porn distributors with massively cheaper distribution costs at the expense of minor drops in video quality. Ultimately, whilst Sony are very likely to lose again, HD-DVD may find itself doomed as well, just not with quite the same haste.
1 comment:
The "Betamax lost because of a lack of porn" is a myth. The reason why Betamax lost to VHS was recording times. The first machine to do over 2 hours was a VHS machine. There was also a competing market in VHS which was licensed, unlike proprietary Betamax.
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