After its first appearance in the early 70s the VCR surpassed even color TV to become the largest consumer electronics product by the early 1980s. In 1975 Sony introduced it's Betamax system and JVC introduced its own VHS system the following year. The two systems were immediately in competition because they used different tape-handling mechanisms and cassette sizes as well as coding systems that varied just enough so that the tapes were not interchangeable. At first Beta was the industry leader with its compact, inexpensive, and reliable VCR. It accounted for most of the sales from 1975-77 and increased in sales until 1985. However in 1975 it fell behind VHS in market share and continued to loose its share every year thereafter. By the end of the 1980s Sony had stopped producing Beta models and switched to a smaller 8mm tape used primarily for home movies. So the question is why did this happen? Sony had entered the market first and had a product that was generally considered to be technically superior than it's VHS counterpart. There were several reasons for Sony's defeat.