I believe that VHS became the defacto standard because the paranoid entertainment industry (I use the term entertainment industry generically. Recording Industry, Movie Studios, or whatever is appropriate can be substituted) took the (Sony) Betamax to court. No other manufacturer (except Sanyo I think) would adopt the Beta format with potential lawsuit damages looming, so they started churning out VHS decks. What really drove the whole VCR/videotape market though was the realization by the (short-sighted paranoid) entertainment industry that they could make zillions re-releasing their movies on videotape. (The release of a movie to DVD/VHS today may be their largest source of revenue). Porn became a big chunk, but still only a fraction in comparison. This whole scenario of paranoia to riches had been played out years earlier when the audio cassette came out. The entertainment industry did everything in their power to stop the manufacture of cassette recorders only to realize an exponential increase in record sales. And here we are watching it play out once again, only this time the industry seems to be getting what it wants and everyone (including them) will suffer. But I digress....
Gonk is absolutely right. Competing formats will do nothing but doom them both. People refrain from purchasing equipment to play one format or the other, not wanting to make the wrong choice, waiting to see which one wins or becomes predominant in the marketplace. Without the equipment, consumers won't purchase the media, media sales lag, equipment sales lag, and everything just dies a slow, quiet death (SACD/DVD-A). I hope it doesn't happen with HD DVD, but with the different formats and the copyright infringement hysteria throwing up roadblocks, it doesn't look good.
Geeez...talk about a rant!!! Sorry