LogFAQs > #963107524

Dikitain posted...

Cassettes were just easier to listen to on the go until the invention of the Discman, and those weren't really a product that your average user could buy until 10 years after they came out. Even then, cassettes still had a lot of advantages over early CD players. It wasn't until the prices went down that it became a viable consumer product.

I suppose DVD's took a similar amount of time to really catch on, and followed a similar progression. Less so in computers, but it was several years before DVD players became cheap enough to compete directly with VCR's instead of just being a luxury upgrade, and several more before DVD's themselves became ubiquitous because people were content with their VHS collections. I attribute part of the PS2's success to that: By including a DVD player before DVD players were something most people were willing to buy for themselves, buying a PS2 to use it primarily as a DVD player wasn't actually a bad idea, which was huge for establishing an early install base and giving it a competitive edge over the GC/Xbox (by extension, this meant it was pretty silly that so many people complained about the Wii not playing DVD's, since DVD players were everywhere and dirt cheap by then).

I guess my impression is mostly an age thing. I have watched CD's take over within my lifetime, so I assumed they'd also shown up within my lifetime, if not slightly sooner. Having been born in '89, though, I wasn't exactly sentient enough to keep up with the market trends of the early 90's in detail, so I'm not surprised my impression's a little off.