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The reason Betamax lost is Sony's monopolistic practices. VHS technology was widely licensed and became commodity technology; Betamax remained tightly controlled by Sony. As a result Betamax cost more -- for the players, the recording equipment, and the tapes themselves. VHS met the needs of the market at large sufficiently well for price to be a major factor.

Sony was so dead-set on making all the money to be made from Betamax that it forgot the problem of what happens when all the money to be made is nearly zero. It is better to have 20% of a really big pie than 90% of a very, very small pie.