High-definition televisions should,by now,be a huge success.Philips,Sony,and Thompson invested billions of dollars to develop sets with astonishingly high picture quality.From a technology perspective,they succeeded:Console manufacturers have been ready for the mass market since the early 1990s.Yet the category has been an unmitigated failure,not because the consoles are deficient,but because critical complements such as studio production equipment,signal compression technologies,and broadcasting standards were not developed or adopted in time.Underperforming complements have left the console producers in the position of offering a Ferrari in a world without gasoline or highways-an admirable engineering feat,but not one that creates value for customers.Today,more than a decade later,the supporting infrastructure is finally close to being in place.But while the pioneering console makers waited for complements to catch up,the environment changed as new formats and new rivals emerged.An innovation that was once characterized as the biggest market opportunity since color TV is now competing for consumer attention in a crowded market space.
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