format war

A format war describes competition between mutually incompatible data medium formats, and is usually very costly to the format-owning parties involved. It results from a failure to agree on a technical standard. Perhaps the most famous example was the videotape format war of the late 1970s and early 1980s, between the rival VHS and Betamax Videotape formats. Although commonly associated with electronic media, examples of format wars can be found in physical analog recording media as well.
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