Young people puzzle over videotape, and we may laugh at how outdated it is, but at one time it was a revolutionary idea for consumers. This is a history lesson. Way back when, viewers had no choice about what to watch in their homes, except for the few TV channels that broadcast what they had on their own schedules. Then home video debuted and opened up an entirely new world. Sony’s Betamax format was first, followed by JVC’s VHS format. Betamax was the higher-quality format, but VHS soon buried them as the consumer’s choice. Why? Bill Hammack, the Engineer Guy, explains what happened in the late 1970s to settle the videotape war. -via Viral Viral Videos
The betamax died out in the mid 80's do to the same reasons MiniDisc, and 7" audio disks died. Sony kept the tech proprietary. The tapes, discs, whatever material had to be bought along with the machines, from Sony ALONE. At Sony's prices. Which are, even today, still at the top of the bar for consumer electronics. The VHS was licensed freely and had very strong competition driving down costs on both the machines and consumables along with raising competition for features on the machines. But Sony tech stagnated and did not continue to keep up with feature upgrades since they were not making the sales.
This simply a case of keeping too tight a hold and not having a strong enough brand to carry the price tag. Apple runs this risk as well. And, as competition increases giving other devices and OSes equal footing, Apple continues to loose market share. JUST LIKE Sony. It's simply a case of market econ.