SONY BETAMAX
Only Sony could call their VCRs a Betamax. Their successful U-matic professional VCRs were already the TV industry standard, but they were not that well known to the general population. They decided that if they were going to educate the public about something totally new and earthshaking, they might as well start with a brand new name. How did they come up with it? According to Akio Morita in his book Made In Japan the Beta half came from the shape of the tape path, because when it was wound around the guides and video drum it looked sorta like a lowercase Greek letter "b" and MAX meant it was the ultimate system. Literally this translates it into the ultimate tape path or Betamax. Sanyo called their version of Beta the B-cord or Betacord, a holdover from their trial V-cord system, which they abandoned. Sears labeled theirs the Betavision and Zenith called their Betas Video Directors. The rest just attached Beta to their names.
Only Sony could use the name Betamax.
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