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Sony
Sony's defining moves.
The defining strategic moves at Sony — each one explained and grounded in the record.
Standards War · Moat & Competition
The Better Format That Lost: What Betamax Teaches About Winning a Standards War
Sony's Betamax had the sharper picture and the head start. It still lost to VHS, and lost completely. The reason is the most counterintuitive rule in technology strategy: in a standards war, the best product routinely loses to the best ecosystem.
7 min