Console war: peace not good for market

The current console war has seen so many battles it’s even sparked a mini-war with the HD DVD and Blu-ray formats. As much as the holy triumvirate of consoles – the Nintendo Wii, the Sony PlayStation 3 and the  Microsoft Xbox 360 – would continue to battle it out to come up on top, it would be an idealist’s dream to see peace break out. Peace, however, may not actually be ideal in this case.

In the business world of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, it’s long since believed that war is good for the market. In fact, the shorter the war, the better for everyone else. One of the biggest quirks of a technology war is that there’s always going to be something better that will come along in a short while. Because of this, companies have to know which particular technology people side with so that they can build on it.

However, with a war as huge as this generation’s, we see a lot of consumers sitting on the fence, waiting to see who will win. As much as this is a good strategy, the market will suffer in the long run because developers and companies would be waiting to see what happens as well. It’s like everyone’s watching two samurai sizing each other up before they attack. In the end, no one moves and everyone leaves the samurai still staring at each other.

A war that ends quickly would put companies in a better position to plan for their next step, even if their own technology loses. The longer the war, the longer they have to wait to make the next move. The longer the wait, the more expensive the war becomes for everyone. Even waiting is expensive: companies lose money by not participating in the war as much as placing their bets in. Strategically, a shorter war may be the best way to move forward.

Via Times Online

The current console war has seen so many battles it’s even sparked a mini-war with the HD DVD and Blu-ray formats. As much as the holy triumvirate of consoles – the Nintendo Wii, the Sony PlayStation 3 and the  Microsoft Xbox 360 – would continue to battle it out to come up on top, it would be an idealist’s dream to see peace break out. Peace, however, may not actually be ideal in this case.

In the business world of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, it’s long since believed that war is good for the market. In fact, the shorter the war, the better for everyone else. One of the biggest quirks of a technology war is that there’s always going to be something better that will come along in a short while. Because of this, companies have to know which particular technology people side with so that they can build on it.

However, with a war as huge as this generation’s, we see a lot of consumers sitting on the fence, waiting to see who will win. As much as this is a good strategy, the market will suffer in the long run because developers and companies would be waiting to see what happens as well. It’s like everyone’s watching two samurai sizing each other up before they attack. In the end, no one moves and everyone leaves the samurai still staring at each other.

A war that ends quickly would put companies in a better position to plan for their next step, even if their own technology loses. The longer the war, the longer they have to wait to make the next move. The longer the wait, the more expensive the war becomes for everyone. Even waiting is expensive: companies lose money by not participating in the war as much as placing their bets in. Strategically, a shorter war may be the best way to move forward.

Via Times Online