[pron]

> This is the VHS-versus-Betamax dynamic, or TCP/IP versus the OSI model, or QWERTY versus every ergonomic alternative proposed since 1936. The technically superior solution loses to the solution that’s easier to deploy, easier to hire for, and good enough for the use cases that pay the bills.

Without commenting on the merit of the claims, the problem with this statement is that in many cases there is no universal "technical superiority", only tradeoffs. E.g. Betamax was technically superior in picture quality while VHS was technically superior in recording time, and more people preferred the latter technical superiority. When people say that the techinically superior approach lost in favour of convenience, what really happened is that their own personal technical preferences were in the minority. More people preferred an alternative that wasn't just "good enough" but technically better, only on a different axis.

Even if we suppose the author is right that his preferred approach yields better outputs, he acknowledges that constructing good inputs is harder. That's not technical superiority; it's a different tradeoff.

[Tomte]

And there was a real cliff in recording time, not a marginal difference: a normal VHS tape could record a typical TV show, a normal Betamax tape could not. The utility function is a step function here.

(Both got more recording times through Long Play techniques a.k.a. quality degradation and through actually longer magnetic tape in the cassette, but at least in the beginning it was clear-cut).

[kjshsh123]

Pretty much although it's less about majority/minority preference and more about utilitarianism and economics.

It's possible a majority of pofeople would have been marginally happier with betamax than vhs. Even in that case, vhs can still win because a minority of people had a strong, stubborn preference for it, even if a majority of people had a weak preference for betamax.

If 1,000,000 people are willing to pay $5 more for video quality but 800,000 people are willing to pay $8 more for longer recording, which wins out?

Not to mention savings on the producer side are relevant too, not just consumer side.

I'm not saying the above is necessarily the case. Just pointing out that markets aren't majoritarian, they're utilitarian.