On this fateful day, this author received no less than 2 dozen frantic e-mails, all with the same message: Sony Tokyo officially announced that they were ceasing production of Betamax VCRs by the end of 2002.  This was the feared and final death blow for all Betaphiles, which will result in nothing but bad news and tells us that:

1) Sony did NOT support the Beta format forever, as they said they would;
2) Parts for Beta machines will be harder and harder to obtain as time goes on, and eventually will be impossible to get, therefore making our precious Betamaxes harder and harder to maintain as they get older;
3) We as Betaphiles will have to stick together more than ever to keep our machines going!!
4) We should SERIOUSLY start thinking about transferring our most precious Beta tapes to a more permanent and viable format, like DVD or CDV's.

                 HERE IS THE TEXT OF THE FIRST ARTICLE:

                                                            Farewell to Sony Betamax 

Tokyo

- Sony is closing the final chapter of its legendary battle with Victor Co. of Japan to dominate the home video machine market, when it announced yesterday that it would discontinue its Betamax VCRs. 

Sony will stop manufacturing Betamax machines by year's end as the company refocuses its efforts on DVD and other technologies now dominating the market, Sony spokeswoman Shoko Yanagizawa said. 

The announcement marks the end of a 27-year run, during which the fabled brand sold 18 million units
worldwide in a race against VHS technology from its archrival Victor Co., which is also known as JVC, to set the video format standard. 

Betamax was first to market, hitting stores in 1975 and peaking with global sales of 2.3 million units in 1984. 

But the decision not to share its technology with rival companies proved to be Sony's fatal mistake. 

In a classic case of the underdog winning the race, VHS - short for "video home system" - had clearly won the battle by the mid-1980s. 

The technology used now in millions of video recorders around the world is JVC's. 

Even for JVC, videocassette technology is losing its luster. The company lost money two of the last three fiscal years and is forecasting losses for the year that ended March 31. 

Overseas production of the Betamax ground to a halt in 1998. 

In Japan, Sony produced just 2,800 units in 2001. 

                               HERE IS A SECOND ARTICLE:

TOKYO - What VHS couldn't do, digital did. Sony Corp's Betamax video tape recorder, which famously lost the 1980s video format war but held on for decades as a niche product, will finally be laid to rest after digital formats delivered a death blow to its prospects. 

Sony said on Tuesday it would only make 2,000 more Betamax machines before discontinuing the product altogether, ending its 27-year history -- spent mostly in the shadow of the Matsushita group's rival VHS format. 

"With digital machines and other new recording formats taking hold in the market, demand has continued to decline and it has become difficult to secure parts," Sony said in a statement. 

Betamax -- held up as an example of how the first to market is not guaranteed commercial success -- had already been pulled from overseas markets in the 1990s, a Sony spokesman said. 

Production of the machine in the last business year to March totaled 2,800 units, a tiny fraction of the 2.3 million made in the peak year of 1984 and the 18 million made over its lifetime. 

Sony said it would continue to offer repairs and manufacture tapes for the format, adding the move would not affect its Betacam products for the broadcasting industry. 

Rapid sales growth in digital versatile disc (DVD) players and recorders has posed a threat in recent years not just to the remnants of Betamax but to the mainstream VHS videotape recorders pioneered by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, maker of Panasonic goods, and Victor Co of Japan, a subsidiary. 

In the DVD arena as well, the industry is groping for ways to set standards without risking a destructive format war. 

A fragmentation of standards for DVD recorders has been blamed for delaying the take-off of that market, and a potential format war is also brewing over next-generation DVD products. 

Sony, Matsushita and seven other industry giants joined hands early this year on a common format for DVD players using blue laser light, which are due out as early as next year and will vastly increase disc storage capacity. 

But Toshiba Corp, a pioneer in DVD technology, said this week it aimed to offer an alternative blue-laser format it believes will be cheaper and more compatible with existing red-laser technology.