What is Format war?
A '''format war''' is the [[competition]] between two or more different [[:wikt:format|formats]] to become the [[industry]] [[standard]].<ref name=Hill219>Charles Hill; Gareth Jones; Melissa Schilling, ''Strategic Management: Theory & Cases: An Integrated Approach'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004), p. 219</ref> Standards are important in every industry and format wars are common.<ref name=Hill219/> The winning standard usually gets the largest [[market share]]. The losing format often suffers dying sales until it is gone completely.<ref name=Ellis39>David Ellis; Julia Johnston, ''Split Screen: Home Entertainment and the New Technologies'' (Toronto: Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, 1992), p. 39</ref> Sometimes the winning format is technically the best, but usually the different formats have different advantages.<ref>Stephen Martin, ''Industrial Organization in Context'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 308</ref> Being first or being cheaper can also help one design win out over its rivals.<ref name=Ellis40>David Ellis; Julia Johnston, ''Split Screen: Home Entertainment and the New Technologies'' (Toronto: Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, 1992), p. 40</ref> == Examples == *[[Direct current]] vs. [[Alternating current]] for power distribution. *Various [[Rail gauge]]s *[[wax]] [[cylinder]]s vs. the [[Gramophone record]] for early music recordings *[[VHS]] vs. [[Betamax]] for video recording tape *[[Microsoft]] and [[Intel]] (Wintel) vs. [[Apple Inc.]] and [[Android (operating system)|Android]] computer operating systems *[[Blu-ray Disc]] vs. [[HD DVD]] for laser discs **[[MiniDisc]] vs. [[Compact Disc|CD]] data storage **[[DVD+R]] vs. [[DVD-R]] data and information == References == {{reflist}} {{stub}} [[Category:Manufacturing]] [[Category:Standards]]