Do You Remember Beta?

Amazon is stuffing folks' stockings with the latest Kindle device.  Sony would have everyone using their Reader, and B&N is announcing that folks can't get enough Nookie.  Some people dread the prospect of it all.  By all appearances, the fate of what and how we read is being determined before our eyes.  Or is it? 

We here at failbetter have no idea who is going to win this war -- nor to be honest if it is a war that is winnable -- but we'd like to point out that all this "news" is not...new.   It's funny, with every other medium society is more than willing to entertain the idea of delivery transformation.  Hell, we actively engage in debating which neweer version is better.  With movies, we've lived through VOD vs. DVD, Blue-Ray vs. HD DVD, DVD vs. VHS, VHS vs. Beta…and let's not even go to laserdisc (lotta folks lost their shirts on that one).   Music: well, you don't hear many folks arguing for the return of 8-track, the eventual loser to cassettes, then to CDs and now to iTunes. 

The literati need not fear for the fate of their products – you sir or madame just need to let your preferences be known.