What was the primary reason for the failure of Beta max?

Answer 1

Sony introduced Betamax in competition with VHS, developed by JVC and others. Technically, Betamax beat VHS with better quality images. The primary reason for VHS winning the war was marketing. VHS as a format was adopted by more manufacturers than Betamax (I think that only Sanyo produced Betamax players other than Sony themselves). VHS was also the format chosen by consumers. VHS was a slightly lower cost than Betamax. Pre-recorded material was not common at the time, so consumers were free to select hardware without too much regard for the format used by pre-recorded tapes. Additionally, most pre-recorded material could be bought on VHS and Betamax tapes. It is interesting to note that Betamax faired much better in the US than Europe. European markets selected VHS in a fairly short period but Betamax in the US remained popular for a number of years before it finally lost to VHS. The battle fought over the formats was for consumer hardware purchases rather than content. Pre-recorded material played a much smaller role than with the high definition DVD war we have seen recently. The DVD battle has taken place far more with the content producers, persuading the big players such as Time Warner, Universal and the like to adopt one format over the others. Sony were not completely defeated in the battle. Betamax was the basis for Betacam, a professional tape format. Betacam has become the international standard for broadcasters and is used in studios and portable news equipment around the globe. Betamax fans can take a little comfort in knowing that every time they watch the news on TV, it's coming from a modified Betamax tape.