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Although originally developed for the home-use market, the price of pre-recorded software for the U-matic was high. The cost of hardware was also high. Thus, the initial response the U-matic's future for success seemed bleak. Before long, Sony decided to concentrate on the development of Betamax. Sensing a rough road ahead for the U Format, Iwama placed Morizono in charge of revitalizing its prospects. Iwama's explicit instructions were to  develop a new application for the U-matic so that it would not directly compete with Betamax for the home market. Morizono complained, saying, I can't save a sinking ship. Iwama persisted, offering Morizono as much funding and as many people needed, and he promised not to nag him for the first five years. Morizono finally relented and agreed to take the job. He took 20 engineers from the Shibaura plant and moved to the Atsugi plant, where production of the U-matic had taken place. The project immediately slipped into the red.
Morizono first considered selling the U-matic to large corporations to use for internal training purposes. He believed there was a better chance of finding someone willing to take on the risk of accepting an untested product in a big company. To this end, he ordered Koichi Tsunoda, then stationed in the United States, to visit Fortune 500 companies and pitch the U-matic as, the ideal system for internal training and communications. The strategy worked, and Sony received orders from such corporate giants as IBM, Coca-Cola and Ford. This was the beginning of the so-called solutions business, that is selling solutions to client's problems.
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Although the U-matic did not have a future as a home-use machine, by targeting a niche market early, Sony found a place for it to grow. European companies began to take notice of the large orders placed in the United States. Before long, U-matic sales in Europe started to rise as well. Customers gradually returned to Sony with feedback on the system as well as some additional requests, such as, Can you include a color camera and an editing device so that we can produce our own programming? and Can you develop a portable model? Sony developed the product line to meet growing customer demands.
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