(Vanity) What superior products were defeated by inferior ones and why

01/13/03 | self

[rudy45]

Some examples come to mind, such as Betamax vs. VHS. Can you think of others? I'm doing a presentation on how an inferior product, with the right strategy, can overome a superior one.

Thanks.

[RossA]

IBM PC vs. Apple's Macintosh

It took Microsoft 5 years to catch up to the Macintosh.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Here comes the PC vs. Mac flame wars!

(And I should note that Beta may have been superior to the initial grade of VHS, but VHS had the superior licensing effort, achieved ubiquity, which made it economical for VHS to make technological strides over what Beta was or might even have been.)

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[TenthAmendmentChampion]

QWERTY keyboard layout vs. the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard. Microsoft offered a conversion map at one time that let you change to a DSK, but I've never seen it used.

QWERTY was set up either randomly or to prevent keys on a typewriter from sticking together (I've heard both stories), a phenomenon that no longer occurs, but here we are with the "standard" keyboard, QWERTY.

[MonroeDNA]

Intel architecture vs. motorolla (Microsoft V. Apple).

The Apple was built on the Motorolla chip; the MS PC on the Intel.

Apple screwed themselves by having a "closed" system. They wouldn't give specs for how others could develop cards to go in their computer.

MS/Intel let everyone know how to invent cards and put them in--they gave out all the specs.

Apple is still struggling.

[AdamSelene235]

Constitutional Republic vs Democratic Socialism

Harley Davidson vs. any other motorcyle.

[rudy45]

How about the IBM AS/400? It is a GREAT system, but nobody likes it because they perceive it as being "closed" and "proprietary."

[MonroeDNA]

You called it!

;)

[isthisnickcool]

My first wife was defeated by my second wife. First wife was shrill, overbearing and basically mean. Second wife is quite the opposite and has yet to run off with all my money.

[Diogenesis]

germanium by silicon
cold fusion by hot fusion
the Amiga (68040 etc.) by the PC
Pcn VK by the higher priced antibiotics

[staylowandkeepmoving]

Right on. If you want a great analysis of why the Wintel systems achieved dominance, read John Sculley's book, Odyssey (written when he was hot); he describes the argument he and Steve Jobs had about price points for the Mac (Sculley won).

What are you studying?

[Larry Lucido]

My wife keeps alluding to the "superior" choices she could have made. LOL!

[MonroeDNA]

Proprietary systems always lose in the end.

Their creative geniouses can't compete with an entire world full of geniouses. They get frustrated, and always build a better mousetrap.

Here's one for ya:

Netscape (better) v. Internet Explorer.

[theFIRMbss]

>What superior products were defeated by inferior ones and why

Apple's Hypercard
defeated Object Logo
because Apple bought

Coral Software and stopped
supporting Logo during
Hypercard's first years.

Real easy-to-use,
powerful software got screwed
so Apple could sell

their in-house hodge-podge
of scripts and pretty pictures.
It makes me shiver.

(An ex-Apple star
once confirmed for me that this
happened as I thought...)

[Brett66]

Perhaps we include the Tucker automobile in this list. It incorporated many useful innovations but couldn't stand up to the Big Three's money/lawyers.

[Huck]

Constitutional Republic vs Democratic Socialism

Good one.

[dep]

windows defeated OS/2; the latter was tremendously superior.

dep

[ao98]

The 1992 election. Clinton beat Bush 41. An inferior candidate with good marketing(spin) beat a superior candidate.

[cruiserman]

Why is VHS inferior to Betamax? You have to give a context.