Consumer electronics [Technology 1998 analysis and forecast]

The consumer electronics industry is wary of a format war, like the one between the Betamax and VHS formats in the late 1970s, which slowed acceptance of the new videocassette-recorder technology and eventually stuck buyers of the losing format with expensive doorstops. Ever since, large consortia of consumer electronics companies have toiled hard to develop industry standards whenever new technologies loomed. As 1997 dawned, such efforts seemed to work: new standards launched the digital video disk (DVD) and digital television, and a cable-modem standard appeared imminent. But a look ahead into 1998 shows the standards fragmenting. The many faces of DVD, whether or not to use high definition for television, and digital still cameras, are discussed