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Dueling Products: Difference between revisions
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| DVD-R(W) || DVD+R(W); DVD-RAM || Recordable and rewritable DVD formats. || DVD-RAM was the first to the market, and had an entirely different design to the other two. DVD-R(W) and DVD+R(W) were very similar formats, but the latter had some subtle differences that supposedly gave it better back-compatibility with older DVD hardware. || A draw between DVD-R(W) and DVD+R(W) -- most manufacturers quickly started producing dual-mode DVD±RW drives, which nullified the differences between the two formats. Most users are still unsure as to why this format war ever started in the first place. DVD-RAM was definitely the least successful of the three; despite being the most technically advanced of the formats, it also suffered much more from compatibility problems than the other two formats.
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| HD DVD || Blu-ray Disc || A high definition optical disc format. || Toshiba led the design of HD DVD and Sony launched Blu-ray, after the two companies had failed to agree on a common standard. Both formats debuted in 2006, with the first HD DVD discs and players appearing in April and beating Blu-ray rivals by two months. HD DVD equipment and movies initially were cheaper to produce and sell, but Blu-ray discs had more capacity (up to 50 gigabytes versus a 30GB maximum for HD DVD) for video, hi-fi soundtracks and special features. || Toshiba discontinued its format on Feb 19, 2008. Three key factors in HD DVD's defeat: Sony securing retailer support over time, [[Warner Bros]]. announcing that it would cease HD DVD support on Jan. 4, 2008 (after having been the only movie studio to issue discs in both formats), and finally Wal-Mart announcing exclusive support. The [[
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| Columbia 33 1/3 rpm long-playing record || RCA 45 rpm single record || Vinyl microgroove discs with better, quieter sound and more durability than shellac-based 78 rpm records. || Columbia introduced the 12-inch LP in 1948, but RCA was unwilling to license a competitor's technology and responded with the 7-inch 45 a year later. || This battle became a draw, with both formats flourishing for nearly four decades, until compact discs overtook the former and cassettes the latter.
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| XM Radio || Sirius Radio || Revolutionary satellite radio providers. || Very similar marketing strategies. So much so that at the launch of this trope there's no a agreed discernible difference yet. || [[Network Decay|Sadly, only losers]]. Neither company could survive on its own and have now merged (Sirius bought XM if you want to get technical). The future is still murky.
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| Slanket || Snuggie || Sweater blankets for those [[Too Incompetent to Operate
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| Ford || Chevrolet || Mass-produced cars for regular people. || Chevy brought color and variety and forced Ford away from an "as long as it's black" policy toward the frequent model changes that defined the golden age of American cars. || Chevy took the sales lead from Ford in the late '20s and held it for most of the rest of the 20th century; fast-forwarding a bit, GM has needed bailout money (now largely paid back) and Ford just barely held on without it. Ford expanded in the '20s by opening branch factories and has long been a worldwide brand, while GM expanded by buying up existing companies (Opel, Holden, etc.) thus only before [[WW 2]] and in the past decade has Chevrolet had much presence outside North America. General Motors required a government bailout during the late 2000s economic crisis, while Ford remained solvent on its own.
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| Fender Guitars || Gibson Guitars || Solid-body electric guitars. || In the early 1950s, the Gibson Les Paul and Fender Telecaster were the two primary solidbody electric guitars on the market. Since then, both companies have expanded their product lineup and landed nearly every big-name guitarist since the 1960s as endorsers. || Always going to be a matter of opinion as far as who makes the better product overall, but guitarists in general come out as winners. The difference in their products are significant enough that there's a market for the "Gibson sound" and the "Fender sound", and it's not uncommon to see players who have one of each, and the overwhelming majority of other guitar manufacturers are expanding (or improving) upon Fender or Gibson designs to some degree.
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| Recipe Secrets || America's Most Wanted Recipes || Books about cloning brand name foods. || Recipe cloning of brand name foods by taking portions home, guessing how much ingredients are needed to make a single serving and the methods required to make it almost like the original. ''Almost'', partly [[You Wanna Get Sued?|for legal reasons]] and partly becasue you can't get things like pure commercial-grade HFCS or preservatives in home-use quantities. || While Todd Wilbur has a great deal of popularity as early as the '90s as a recipe cloner, Ron Douglas managed to apparently "clone" the 11 herbs and spices in the Original Recipe Chicken, a closely guarded recipe. Wilbur also cloned snack foods which puts him at a higher advantage.
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| Sham Wow! || Zorbeez || Super-absorbent towels. || While [[Vince Offer]] pitched Sham Wow!, [[Billy Mays]] took on Zorbeez two years prior. || Sham Wow! is more well-known, despite coming out later. According to Popular Mechanics, it is the more effective of the two.
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| Filet-O-Fish || Hulaburger || [[McDonald's]] newest meal that was originally aim to the American Catholic demographic who didn't eat red meat on Friday's, and would instead eat at Big Boy restaurants, which served a fish sandwich. || The former was a battered fish patty in a bun with half a slice of processed cheese and tartar sauce made by food inventor Lou Groen, the latter was a sandwich with a pineapple slice on a bun with two pieces of cheese by [[McDonald's]] owner Ray Kroc. Interestingly, the latter was only made by Mr. Kroc as he [[It Will Never Catch On|believe the Filet-O-Fish was a stupid idea]] and his Hulaburger was much better. || Unfortunately for Mr. Kroc, he was wrong as the Filet-O-Fish was far more popular than his Hulaburger. To add insult to injury, not only did the Filet-O-Fish was popular to Catholics, but it was also popular with Muslims and non-red meat eaters as well. Today, Filet-O-Fish is still [[McDonald's]] most popular meal while the Hulaburger was forgotten like the other [[McDonald's]] meals that failed .
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| [[Steam]] || Direct2Drive, Impulse, Origin (formerly EA Store), Games for Windows Live marketplace, many others. || Internet-based game delivery and content management systems. || Steam was the brainchild of Valve, Direct2Drive was created by IGN, Impulse was founded by Stardock, Origin is run by EA, and Games for Windows Live marketplace, unsurprisingly, is run by [[Microsoft]]. || Steam benefited from having a [[Killer App]] in the form of ''[[
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| [[Xbox Live Arcade]] || Playstation Store, [[Wii Ware]] Marketplace || "Casual gaming" marketplaces for home gaming consoles. || Xbox Live Arcade debuted on the original Xbox, but really took off with the [[Xbox 360]]. The other two debuted on the [[Play Station 3]] and [[Wii]] respectively, and later expanded their range to include the [[Play Station Portable]] and [[Nintendo DS|DSi]]. || Xbox Live Arcade is currently the most successful and has the best overall reputation, likely due to the fact that it was the first out and the Xbox 360 is currently selling better than the Playstation 3. The Playstation Store is also quite successful, albeit not to the same extent. On its own terms the WiiWare Marketplace would be in last place by an embarrassingly huge margin, but as an offshoot to Nintendo's already-successful Virtual Console service, they can probably live with that. That being said, all three services are rapidly losing support from indie developers due to much more open digital distribution services such as the iPhone app store, Steam, Desura, and so on - XBLA has been under fire by developers for years as being much less indie-friendly than it should be - such as ludicrous fees (in the tens of thousands) for ''patches'' of all things.
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