Lehigh University Lehigh Preserve Perspectives on business and economics Perspectives on Business and Economics 1-1-1989 Creativity or Imitation:Japanese Success in VCR Technology Jeanine M. Kasulis Lehigh University Follow this and additional works at: http://preserve.lehigh.edu/perspectives-v07 Recommended Citation Kasulis, Jeanine M., "Creativity or Imitation:Japanese Success in VCR Technology" (1989). Perspectives on business and economics. Paper 1. http://preserve.lehigh.edu/perspectives-v07/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Perspectives on Business and Economics at Lehigh Preserve. It has been accepted for inclusion in Perspectives on business and economics by an authorized administrator of Lehigh Preserve. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CREATIVITY OR IMITATION: JAPANESE SUCCESS IN VCR TECHNOLOGY Jeanine M. Kasulis Introduction corder (VCR), a popular electronics device found Until the late 1960s, U.S. industry enjoyed in two out of five American homes, was origin­ a preeminent position in technology and com­ ally invented as a broadcasting tool by a Cali­ manded a significant market share in the field fornia-based American firm named Ampex in for industrial and commercial products. Dur­ 1956 (Television and Video Almanac, 1988, p. ing the decades that have followed, however, 433). The invention evolved over the next two competitive strides by the Japanese have made decades into a product that could be used in stunning impacts on world and domestic mar­ the home; but Ampex in particular, and the kets alike. Superior Japanese performance has American electronics industry in general, fell been a growing concern in a wide array of out of competition. Today, the superiority of industrial and commercial fields, including the Japanese in the home VCR field is so over­ home electronics, office automation, semicon­ whelming that no American manufacturer even ductors, robotics, and biotechnology. Once a bothers trying to make such a product; instead, war-tom, poverty-stricken country, Japan has all the major American electronics companies­ taken great leaps towards supplanting the po­ RCA, Zenith, General Electric, and the rest­ sitions of other industrialized nations, such as buy Japanese-made VCRs and add their name­ America, as an innovative leader and replacing plates to them (Verespej, 1986, p. 29). Today Western products with its own technological Japan is the foremost producer and exporter of feats. VCRs with 90 percentoftheworld's production The consumer electronics field is a vivid (Abegglen and Stalk, 1985). example of an area formerly dominated by Much speculation has been made about American ingenuity and subsequently taken Japan's astounding success in segments of the over by cleverly produced, high quality, low U.S. home market. Such speculation includes priced Japanese goods. The videocassette re- the persistent myth that while Americans are 1 naturally inventive and creative, the Japanese will discuss what implications these factors are merely clever copiers and adapters of im­ have with regard to the issue of Japanese crea­ ported foreign technology. Mter all, it is claimed, tivity and technological ability. the importation of advanced technological processes is one of the leading factors in Japan's economic growth since World War II (Shishido, The Emergence.of the VCR Concept 1985). Therefore, according to this view, the Japanese have succeeded by shamelessly bor­ On September 27, 1951, David Sarnoff, rowing technological innovations from the U.S. President of RCA Laboratories, celebrated the and other nations and transforming them into 45th anniversary of his start in the radio busi­ inexpensive household staples. ness. A gala ceremony was held in RCA Labor­ However, if there was ever a time to label atories in Princeton, New Jersey. During the the Japanese as mere imitators, that time has ceremony Mr. Sarnoff gave a speech concern­ certainly passed. Not only have the Japanese ing how to prepare for his 50th anniversary, established a solid record of creativity and in­ just five years away. novation, but there is growing evidence that Sarnoff, who was celebrated for his powers Americans may be losing some of their knack of prognostication as far back as 1916 when he for developing products (Rudolph, 1988). Along envisioned the presence of "radio music boxes" with their appropriation of basic imported tech­ in ordinary homes, suggested three presents nologies, the Japanese have also shown a grow­ that he would be pleased to receive at his 50th ing talent for improving and enhancing anniversary: a true amplifier of light, an all­ consumer goods by translating them into rea­ electronic air conditioner, and a television pic­ sonably-priced, useful products. The Japanese ture recorder that would record the video sig­ also appear to intuitively understand the needs nals of television on an inexpensive tape and desires of the consumer market. (Lardner, p. 55). The third request was one The home VCR market provides an excel­ which was well-understood by the engineers at lent case study of Japanese appropriation and RCA The firm was associated with broadcast­ improvement of American-invented goods. This ing networks through its NBC subsidiary, and innovation, discovered by an American firm the only way to record a television program which enjoyed years of patent protection that back in 1951-the days of live TV-was by should have given it a dominant competitive kinescope recording, a process that amounted advantage in the field, has been handed over to to putting a movie camera in front of the TV Japanese companies. The reason for Japan's screen. Not only was this process costly, but it successful appropriation of VCR technology is also produced a less-than-desirable picture not to be found in clever imitation. Rather, the quality and was a time-consuming process as Japanese success can be attributed to such fac­ well. Time was a factor of particular concern to tors as superiority in the manufacture of solid the broadcast field back then since networks state devices, foresight in the consumer field, often faced the task of taking a live transmis­ and a broadminded approach to the VCR target sion of a program airing at one time in the East markets. The intent..of this paper, therefore, is and preparing a recorded version for broadcast to examine the marketing and technological three hours later .in the West. A video tape development of the VCR in the U.S. and its ap­ recorder would provide a quicker, cheaper al- ~ propriation and dramatic improvement by the ternative to TV broadcasters. Japanese. I will begin the analysis by tracing Although there exists no barrier in princi­ the initial development of the VCR and the ple to recording a television signal, the task technological difficulties that were encount­ provides a great deal more complexity than ered by firms determined to produce a success­ recording an audio signal. A TV image is an ful prototype. I will then point out the factors intricate and complicated one that must be that led the Japanese to dominate VCR produc­ changed 30 times a second to simulate motion. tion and the American firms to falter. Finally, I Therefore a TV signal must transmit millions of 2 instructions to the picture tube every second. Invention of the VCR The main difficulty associated with recording a attempted to increase high definition signal lies in the frequency As RCA engineers engineers at Ampex Corporation in involved, which extends to six megahertz (six tape speed, followed a different million cycles a minute), and the range of fre­ Redwood City, California, route. Charles Ginsberg, who was in quencies, which covers about 20 octaves. research videotape recorder project, The mechanics of recording and playback charge of Ampex's to an idea conceived by for audio involves the recording tape, record­ had committed himself a ma­ ing head, microphone, and speaker. The re­ Marvin Camras. Camras had envisioned head, as well as the tape, cording tape used is generally made of a plastic chine in which the was in fact the faster base and contains a binder, or coating, that was a moving part-and Ray Dolby (later of "Dolby holds magnetic powder used to record a signal moving of the two. developed the notion by to the base. This tape is pulled past a recording sound" fame) further using four heads along head which produces fluctuations of intensity implementing a system system that sim­ and polarity in direct response to the electrical with a two-way switching sequenc­ input of a microphone, leaving a trail of magne­ plified circuitry and corrected timing placed along the side of a tism on the tape. During playback the roles are ing. These heads were single lines of magne­ reversed with the magnetized particles on the rotating drum and made process called "transverse tape dictating to the head, which in tum relays tism on the tape-a economized on the fluctuations in magnetism to an amplifier and scanning." Such a process capable of recording much then to a speaker. Similarly, in television re­ use of tape and was in the cording the electronic camera changes the var­ higher frequencies than those achieved Since the prob­ iations in light, which compose a picture, into original recording machines. head-to­ a long train of electrical impulses. The impulses · lem with RCA's prototype involved tape passed representing dark and light parts of the picture tape speed (the speed at which the a low reel-to­ act on videotape as the impulses representing the heads) and maintenance of tape changes in amplitude act on audiotape. Al­ reel speed (to reduce the total length of though this is a relatively straightforward proc­ required), Ampex's idea of moving the tape ess, the intricacies of the TV signal call for heads was an ingenious one (Robinson, 1974).