The Cosmic Paperweight
It occurred to me that I hadn’t written anything of near-significance since my column in the mid-’90′s ("The Radical Retailer") in the long-gone gamer trade magazine edited by my friend and former publisher of American Cinematographer Magazine, Jim McCullough. It was before blogs but it was just as pithy as I could write.
Had I written the column today it would have covered the Hi Def format war pitting The Toshiba Corporation‘s HD format against Sony‘s Blu-ray. It was a war that actually ended before it began. Walking the floor at the 2006 CE Show in Las Vegas with Questex Media‘s Don Rosenberg and with research mavin Judith McCourt of the Redhill Group, we were told with no uncertainty that it was over. Blu ray would win because of capacity. "Capacity always trumps features and launch dates," I was told by another interested party from ironically, NBC Universal.
It was frustrating for the retailer. As excited as they were about a new opportunity to sell high definition screens, installation and accessories, they were holding back. While the management at Best Buy and Tweeter were all for it, the kids on the floor – the real touch points to the customer – not so much. Ask them about the new HD or Blu-ray players and you were told in no uncertain terms, "it’s too early. Wait." And, if they went through the process of A-B-ing Hi Def software and player versus standard DVD technology, it was hard to tell. To the average consumer, no discernible difference.
To all those who held back buying the HD players due to honest, knowledgeable custom service- you were saved from buying an expensive paper weight. Would you return to that store? You betcha.
Today, the format war is over. Those that should have known better lost more than just face. They lost consumer confidence and oh yeah, hundreds of jobs and a billion dollars U.S.
If this tragedy had occurred in the 1940′s there would have been mass seppuku at Toshiba. The sad part, it all could have been avoided.
Isn’t that what social networks are for? Instant focus groups. Instant feedback. Instant everything. More on that next time.
