The DVD format war is a great example of how competition hurts the consumer.
Because of this format war, there are few high definition DVDs available, and the DVD players are unnecessarily expensive. They are especially expensive if you have to buy two of them, one for each format.
Blue ray will win. Every Playstation 3 is a Blue Ray Player, and Sony has shipped millions of them worlwide.
Posted by: Gannon | December 31, 2007 at 12:25 PM
The DVD format war is a great example of how competition hurts the consumer.
This is a bit like saying the modem protocol war is a great example of how competition hurts the consumer.
People also kvetch about the Dvorak keyboard and Betamax. As a consumer, I haven't noticed the harm. (And note well, with the rise of DVDs, the whole "Betamax is better" debate is now moot anyway).
Posted by: Schumpeter | December 31, 2007 at 04:52 PM
Wait so now you're a commie?
Posted by: Shnugi | December 31, 2007 at 05:44 PM
Yeah, why can't government tell us what technology to use? Especially for something as important as seeing Idiocracy in HD format.
Posted by: hugh go naught | January 02, 2008 at 09:30 AM
More like an exceptional case where competition kinda-sorta hurts the consumer but only because the movie studios are too old-fashioned to simply support multiple formats.
No one complains about the decades old video game "format war".
Posted by: James | January 02, 2008 at 09:39 AM