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I see it as similar to what happened with Zenith: better built sets being sold at a higher price, and it worked until it became easy to make even a cheap set perform well. By the late 50's, what could a DuMont do that an RCA or Philco couldn't? By the late 70s, what could a Zenith do that a Sanyo or a Sampo couldn't? You can coast a while on a perception of quality but unless you can deliver something the others can't, you're through. The late 50s were tough on TV sales in general (as the market had reached saturation-pretty much everybody that was ever going to buy a TV had already bought one.) The market was waiting for the next big thing, which in this case was color, but it was still half-baked. Had DuMont been able to best RCA in that regard, maybe they could have stayed alive.
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Bryan
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