Format wars are also referred to as standards wars which are competitions for market dominance and at times for survival between two or more parties of a certain technology. Formant wars mostly start when several producers develop non-interoperable proprietary technologies that are designed for a specific purpose. Examples include format wars between VHS and Betamax in the 1980s and 1990s which competed for the video cassette recorder (VCR) market. Although Betamax was the superior product, VHS won the war and became to dominate the market (Edwards, 2011). The war was so intense that people say that a product has been betamaxed when it loses a format war to an inferior product.
Another example is the perennial format wars between browser producers. In the late 1990s, Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape Navigator. Internet Explorer dominated the industry but it declined to the extent that it is no longer competitive. Navigator does not exist but Netscape began the open-source Mozilla project which then led to the Firefox Web browser. Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome are currently in the format wars with Chrome dominating the war (Edwards, 2011).
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Apple versus Google for the future is the current format war in the technology industry although the war has reduced significantly in recent years. The war is on different visions where Apple aims at having complete control over its software and hardware. Contrary, Google has invited developers and consumers to develop better Android products. The management of the two companies should invest its resources in developing new and superior products that are relevant and meet the needs and preferences of the consumers. For instance, Google and Apple have spent more resources on intellectual property and litigation than on development and research. They should instead have utilized the resources on creating and improving their products so that they can remain relevant in the market.
Reference
Edwards, C. (2011). Format wars. Engineering & Technology , 6 (11), 38-39.
