# better technologies that failed (i.e. BetaMax) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 2, 2014, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-technologies-that-failed-i-e-betamax/700178 "2014-10-02T12:49:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-technologies-that-failed-i-e-betamax/700178/101 "2014-10-27T13:47:35Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > But - If you want the last remaining version of the original Star Wars - see Laser - the tapes rotted years ago, but I still have my Lasers AND a player 😉 No! The original Original Trilogy was released on DVD in 2006. [It comes up all the time.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=704533) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-technologies-that-failed-i-e-betamax/700178/102 "2014-10-27T15:33:55Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > LOL. Right, because EVERY phone had an OS built entirely around a multitouch capacitive touch screen when the iPhone came out… “elderly”, that’s funny stuff. Also, a cite please that “iPhones still fall well behind the curve in most technical respects.” His point wasn’t that the iPhone put together a bunch of distinctly NON cutting-edge hardware into something that wasn’t really on the market yet, and was groundbreaking in the way they combined it, not in the actual components. And iPhones haven’t ever been pushing the tech curve; even the iPhone 6-es are roughly where last year’s Android phones were- except for the cameras, which are admittedly stellar. They use the same ARM cpu core family as the Android phones, and their own GPU, but in most tests I’ve ever seen, there’s very, very little performance difference- the kind of thing you’d see in a lab under very controlled conditions, but not in real-world use. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-technologies-that-failed-i-e-betamax/700178/103 "2014-10-27T20:15:40Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > well, there was a 3rd thing, even if it isn’t mentioned much. > > Sony, with its usual desire to control everything, was more restrictive in what content could be put out on Beta. Whereas anybody could produce and sell VHS tapes. Specifically, porn. Sony made it hard for porn producers to use Beta, so they used VHS. Thus there was a lot more porn available on VHS early on. And frankly, a lot of the young, male, early-adopter types went with VHS because of that. Nope. Sony had no control over content. How would they? (All they could control was the use of the Beta logo and Beta/Betamax words on the boxes and apparently didn’t really set that up well. Something Philips did better with DVD where if you want to use “DVD” on a disc/box, the disc has to meet certain standards and a license is required.) Porn producers did seem to prefer VHS for some reason, and that is rumored to have been a factor. (Maybe the fuzziness of the image kept the viewer from noticing all the actors’ blemishes.) Porn on Beta was available, just not in the same quantities as VHS. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-technologies-that-failed-i-e-betamax/700178/104 "2014-10-27T20:55:12Z")
> [@bump](#): > > They use the same ARM cpu core family as the Android phones, Saying “they use the same ARM cpu core family” mis-characterizes the situation. Apple and Qualcomm license the architecture and custom design their own chips using the instruction set. The others license standard arm processor designs. Apple’s single core performance substantially outperforms all other mobile cpu’s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-technologies-that-failed-i-e-betamax/700178.md?page=5)