Jim, In the late '80s and early '90s, major Japanese firms rush to develop HDTV, set the HDTV standard, thus control the future of HDTV market. After many years of hard work and billions spent, FCC ruled the HDTV standard must be compatible with existing TV standard, that killed the Japanese HDTV instantly, because their HDTV is of a different standard, and since USA is the number One market in the world, without the American market, there is no reason for living for their HDTV standard. The HDTV on the market today is based on totally different HDTV technologies than what the Japanese developed. This is a classic textbook case taught in B schools.
You maybe watching HDTV, but most Americans are not. You may have paid big bucks for HDTV, but most Americans have not. They will one day, but not now, not until when they are cheap enough. One thing is for sure, HDTV did not turn out to be a big deal, yet. Nowhere near what the internet turned out to be, which the Japanese missed completely.
La Pointe is, being late to a technology is not a bad thing.
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