History AmericansHateTingle / Technology

* Sony's [=MiniDisc=] format was popular in Japan and to a lesser extent in Europe, but failed to catch on outside of a cult following of audio professionals and audiophiles as a more portable, recordable alternative to the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc. This has been attributed to several reasons: the lack of prerecorded minidiscs compared to [=CDs=], the lack of stereo component recorders/players (most were portable), problems with ATRAC compression, and the high costs of players/recorders and blank media. Despite improvements in playback and smaller devices, the advent of CD burners, anti-skip buffers in portable CD players (a feature pioneered by [=MiniDisc=]), and finally the arrival of digital music players like Apple's [=iPod=] made the format less attractive to American consumers, though MD players did attract a cult following for their small size and the durability of the media, as the discs were enclosed in plastic cases similar to 3.5" floppy disks. They were largely relegated to professional work as an alternative to DAT for field recording and in recording studios, though even these were also superseded by solid-state recorders and computer recording software. Another possible reason for MD's stateside failure was the greater use of public transportation in Japan and Europe, where the small size of discs and players was more valued than in auto-dependent America. On the other hand, their Japanese popularity can the attributed to how they fit better with the business model of the Japanese music industry. In Japan, albums are far more expensive than they are in other countries, making music rentals a popular means of consuming music; the [=MiniDisc=] gave consumers the option of recording their own personal copies of rented [=CDs=].

* Sony's [=MiniDisc=] format was popular in Japan and to a lesser extent in Europe, but failed to catch on outside of a cult following of audio professionals and audiophiles as a more portable, recordable alternative to the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc. It also fit better with the business model of the Japanese music industry. In Japan, albums are far more expensive than they are in other countries, making music rentals a popular means of consuming music; the [=MiniDisc=] gave consumers the option of recording their own personal copies of rented [=CDs=]. This has been attributed to several reasons: the lack of prerecorded minidiscs compared to [=CDs=], the lack of stereo component recorders/players (most were portable), problems with ATRAC compression, and the high costs of players/recorders and blank media. Despite improvements in playback and smaller devices, the advent of CD burners, anti-skip buffers in portable CD players (a feature pioneered by [=MiniDisc=]), and finally the arrival of digital music players like Apple's [=iPod=] made the format less attractive to American consumers, though MD players did attract a cult following for their small size and the durability of the media, as the discs were enclosed in plastic cases similar to 3.5" floppy disks. They were largely relegated to professional work as an alternative to DAT for field recording and in recording studios, though even these were also superseded by solid-state recorders and computer recording software. Another possible reason for MD's stateside failure was the greater use of public transportation in Japan and Europe, where the small size of discs and players was more valued than in auto-dependent America.

* Sony's [=MiniDisc=] format was popular in Japan and to a lesser extent in Europe, but failed to catch on outside of a cult following of audio professionals and audiophiles as a more portable, recordable alternative to the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc. It also fit better with the business model of the Japanese music industry, where albums are far more expensive than they are in other countries, making music rentals a popular means of consuming music; the [=miniDisc=] gave consumers the option of recording their own personal copies of rented [=CDs=]. This has been attributed to several reasons: the lack of prerecorded minidiscs compared to [=CDs=], the lack of stereo component recorders/players (most were portable), problems with ATRAC compression, and the high costs of players/recorders and blank media. Despite improvements in playback and smaller devices, the advent of CD burners, anti-skip buffers in portable CD players (a feature pioneered by [=MiniDisc=]), and finally the arrival of digital music players like Apple's [=iPod=] made the format less attractive to American consumers, though MD players did attract a cult following for their small size and the durability of the media, as the discs were enclosed in plastic cases similar to 3.5" floppy disks. They were largely relegated to professional work as an alternative to DAT for field recording and in recording studios, though even these were also superseded by solid-state recorders and computer recording software. Another possible reason for MD's stateside failure was the greater use of public transportation in Japan and Europe, where the small size of discs and players was more valued than in auto-dependent America.

* Sony's [=MiniDisc=] format was popular in Japan and to a lesser extent in Europe, but failed to catch on outside of a cult following of audio professionals and audiophiles as a more portable, recordable alternative to the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc. This has been attributed to several reasons: the lack of prerecorded minidiscs compared to [=CDs=], the lack of stereo component recorders/players (most were portable), problems with ATRAC compression, and the high costs of players/recorders and blank media. Despite improvements in playback and smaller devices, the advent of CD burners, anti-skip buffers in portable CD players (a feature pioneered by [=MiniDisc=]), and finally the arrival of digital music players like Apple's [=iPod=] made the format less attractive to American consumers, though MD players did attract a cult following for their small size and the durability of the media, as the discs were enclosed in plastic cases similar to 3.5" floppy disks. They were largely relegated to professional work as an alternative to DAT for field recording and in recording studios, though even these were also superseded by solid-state recorders and computer recording software. Another possible reason for MD's stateside failure was the greater use of public transportation in Japan and Europe, where the small size of discs and players was more valued than in auto-dependent America.

* Most Americans associate the transition to widescreen television with the introduction of HDTV in the mid TurnOfTheMillennium, since widescreen televisions were almost unheard of before then. However, widescreen standard definition televisions were actually quite popular in many other countries during TheNineties and early TurnOfTheMillennium. This was due to the US' lower resolution NTSC television standard being less suited to widescreen broadcasting.
* Non-Japanese computers are ''very'' unpopular in Japan, since not only the MSX, PC-88/PC-98, FM-7, FM Towns, X1 and X68000 already do a huge competition, as well as consoles like Famicom, Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES, PC Engine, even arcades like CPS and Neo Geo, but also then-difficult to reproduce kanji text and simply the fact the Japanese customers prefer buying a domestically-made product and back then generally regarded foreign computers as inferior in specs, even if computers like the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} proved otherwise.

* Creator/{{Nokia}}. In most of the world, they have a sterling reputation for selling ''billions'' of the most advanced and reliable cell phones ever made. But in North America, they are only remembered for some rather unimpressive, albeit MadeOfIndestructium, low-end devices. Blame carriers, who wanted to ''remove'' features from their high-end phones to sell piecemeal (such as disabling wi-fi to make people use their expensive data plans) or develop bespoke phones for the likes of Verizon which are completely different from those used in Eurasian regions (BREW instead of Java ME as well as the CDMA wireless standard), and shunned Nokia when they refused to compromise. UsefulNotes/{{Symbian}}, a smartphone OS co-maintained by Nokia, wasn't as popular as it was in the rest of the world either.

** The story is more complicated than that. In the case of Europe/Japan, World War II destroyed much of their infrastructure, including complex rail systems dating to the 19th century. In rebuilding, these countries were more able to build trackage and equipment that enabled much faster rail[[note]]Particularly, tracks that were essentially straight lines with very few curves (and those curves that were there are slight)[[/note]], leading to advancements in high-speed rail. The US, both completely untouched by the war and a nation whose foundation was the supremacy of private property, lacked the ability to start from scratch in terms of trackage due to the vested interests in the freight rail business. On top of this, in the aftermath of World War II, car companies, riding high on being the Arsenal of America, leveraged that to their political and economic favor by buying up rail and trolley car companies, only to shut them down years later. Finally, political interests in the US that enabled capital flight to the suburbs in that period favored the automobile over rail because the former justified property sprawl more easily. They were helped by President Eisenhower, who sought to recreate the Autobahn in the US for "national security" purposes.

* Video telephony. In the US, the technology has failed to catch on with consumers and is widely only used in businesses, largely due to accusations of invasion of privacy. A lot of people feel self-conscious about being on camera, while people often multitask during audio-only calls. However, in Japan and South Korea, video calling is ''huge''. This is largely due to the social protocols and culture of the two countries, who see eye-to-eye contact while talking extremely important. The technology would only become more widespread stateside with the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and the scramble toward telework making such conferencing necessary. Even then, videoconferencing remains widely disliked; westerners who work remotely generally prefer to conduct business calls with their camera turned off, when they aren't using text-based methods like Slack instead.

* Video telephony. In the US, the technology has failed to catch on with consumers and is widely only used in businesses, largely due to accusations of invasion of privacy. A lot of people feel self-conscious about being on camera, while people often multitask during audio-only calls. However, in Japan and South Korea, video calling is ''huge''. This is largely due to the social protocols and culture of the two countries, who see eye-to-eye contact while talking extremely important. The technology would only become more widespread stateside with the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and the scramble toward telework making such conferencing necessary. Even then, videoconferencing remains widely disliked; westerners who work remotely generally prefer to conduct business calls with their camera turned off.

* The French automotive industry, while still very prominent in most parts of the world, has been completely nonexistent in the US and Canada since the early '90s. Although the big three French carmakers (Peugeot, Citroën, and Renault) were respectively discontinued at different times and for different specific reasons, the biggest factor for their loss of popularity in North America is that by the late 20th Century, French automakers had earned [[TheAllegedCar a lackluster quality reputation]] compared to German and Japanese brands, leaving them in unprofitable competition against a fierce domestic market. Citroën specifically was destroyed because their SM model did not meet design regulations particular to the US. Although some Nissan models sold in the US and Canada contain parts manufactured by Renault, none of the French brands have consolidated any coherent attempt to return to those countries concretely since they first bowed out.

* Video telephony. In the US, the technology has failed to catch on with consumers and is widely only used in businesses, largely due to accusations of invasion of privacy. A lot of people feel self-conscious about being on camera, while people often multitask during audio-only calls. However, in Japan and South Korea, video-calling is ''huge''. This is largely due to the social protocols and culture of the two countries, who see eye-to-eye contact while talking extremely important. The technology would only become more widespread stateside with the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and the scramble toward telework making such conferencing necessary. Even then, videoconferencing remains widely disliked; westerners who work remotely generally prefer to conduct business calls with their camera turned off.

* Video telephony. In the US, the technology has failed to catch on with consumers and is widely only used in businesses- largely due to accusations of ''invasion of privacy''. A lot of people feel self-conscious about being on camera, while people often multitask during audio-only calls. However, in Japan and South Korea, video-calling is ''huge''. This is largely due to the social protocols and culture of the two countries, who see eye-to-eye contact while talking extremely important. The technology would only become more widespread stateside with the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and the scramble toward telework making such conferencing necessary. Even then, videoconferencing remains widely disliked; westerners who work remotely generally prefer to conduct business calls with their camera turned off.

* Zig-zagged with text messaging in the U.S. When SMS was introduced to the country, most mobile phone subscribers shunned it while it became massively popular elsewhere due to the expense of sending text messages. Text messaging later became popular when mobile subscribers began bundling it, but text messaging has remained popular in the U.S. as mobile phone users in Europe have moved on to [=WhatsApp=]. Again, this is due to the expense of text messaging, as Europe has a lower land mass and Europeans and Latin Americans, who are among the app's biggest users, tend to have more international contacts than Americans do. Since [=WhatsApp=] runs on top of the internet, it does away with texting costs. Americans see no need for it because they already have unlimited texting plans. Stateside, it's ''data'' that's expensive, an inversion of the situation overseas.

* Zig-zagged with text messaging in the U.S. When SMS was introduced to the country, most mobile phone subscribers shunned it while it became massively popular elsewhere due to the expense of sending text messages. Text messaging later became popular when mobile subscribers began bundling it, but text messaging has remained popular in the U.S. as mobile phone users in Europe have moved on to [=WhatsApp=]. Again, this is due to the expense of text messaging, as Europe has a lower land mass and Europeans and Latin Americans, who are among the app's biggest users, tend to have more international contacts than Americans do. Since [=WhatsApp=] runs on top of the internet, it does away with texting costs. Americans see no need for it because they already have unlimited texting plans.

* Zig-zagged with text messaging in the U.S. When SMS was introduced to the country, most mobile phone subscribers shunned it while it became massively popular elsewhere due to the expense of sending text messages. Text messaging later became popular when mobile subscribers began bundling it, but text messaging has remained popular in the U.S. as mobile phone users in Europe have moved on to [=WhatsApp=]. Again, this is due to the expense of text messaging, as Europe has a lower land mass and Europeans and Latin Americans, the app's biggest users, tend to have more international contacts than Americans do. Since [=WhatsApp=] runs on top of the internet, it does away with texting costs. Americans see no need for it because they already have unlimited texting plans.

* Although Windows ME wasn't loved in its home country either, the Dutch had an ''extremely'' negative perception towards the operating system, to point where they even made their own mocking nickname: "Windows ''Meer Ellende''". [[note]]"more suffering" in Dutch.[[/note]]

* Video telephony. In the US, the technology has failed to catch on with consumers and is widely only used in businesses- largely due to accusations of ''invasion of privacy''. A lot of people feel self-conscious about being on camera, while people often multitask during audio-only calls. However, in Japan and South Korea, video-calling is ''huge''. This is largely due to the social protocols and culture of the two countries, who see eye-to-eye contact while talking extremely important. The technology would only become more widespread stateside with the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and the scramble toward telework making such conferencing necessary, and even then videoconferencing is widely disliked.

** However, aso of recently, the trope has been mostly averted as Mac has caught up and becomes a popular alternative to Windows in Japan, thanks to the [=iPhone=] and [=iPad=] being popular.

** This is starting to repeat with contactless ("[=PayWave=]") cards in North America. This is largely due to tinfoil hatters claiming that it would be easy for hackers to clone their card and commit identity fraud without even touching their wallet, and is largely backed by studies by "privacy groups". Compounding to things is the competition from phone-based NFC payment systems, which is faring much better in the west, although the availability of multiple, incompatible standards (Apple Pay vs Samsung Pay vs Google Pay) does complicate things a little. Eventually, the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic made contactless payment more common because cardholders didn't need to hand their cards or cash to a cashier and risk contracting the disease.

Of course, to be fair to Americans, the US had jumped out way in front on credit-card security by the late 1980s, when the existence of a real-time network to verify cards and their credit status made the system much less fraud-prone. Laws limited the liability of cardholders for fraudulent charges as long as they reported them promptly. Americans thus never saw the credit-card system as much of a fraud risk (provided you took care of your own card, its security code, and monitored your statements) as Europeans always had.

Of course, to be fair to Americans, the US had jumped out way in front on credit-card security by the late 1980s, when the existence of a real-time network to verify cards and their credit status made the system much less fraud-prone. Laws limited the liability of cardholders for fraudulent charges as long as they reported them promptly. Americans thus never saw the credit-card system as much of a fraud risk (provided you took care of your own card and its security code) as Europeans always had.

Of course, to be fair to Americans, the US had jumped out way in front on credit-card security by the late 1980s, when the existence of a real-time network to verify cards and their credit status made the system much less fraud-prone. Americans thus never saw the credit-card system as much of a fraud risk (provided you took care of your own card and its security code) as Europeans always had.

* Non-Japanese computers are ''very'' unpopular in Japan, since not only the MSX, PC-88/PC-98, FM-7, FM Towns, X1 and X68000 already do a huge competition, as well as consoles like Famicom, Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES, PC Engine, even arcades like CPS and Neo Geo, but also then-difficult to reproduce kanji text and simply the fact the Japanese customers prefer buying a domestically-made product and back then generally regarded foreign computers as inferior in specs, even if computers like the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} proved otherwise.

* Non-Japanese computers are ''very'' unpopular in Japan, since not only the MSX, PC-88/PC-98, FM-7, FM Towns, X1 and X68000 already do a huge competition, as well as consoles like Famicom, Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES, PC Engine, even arcades like CPS and Neo Geo, butbalso then-difficult to reproduce kanji text and simply the fact the Japanese customers prefer buying a domestically-made product and back then generally regarded foreign computers as inferior in specs, even if computers like the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} proved otherwise.