"Moore's Law states that the number of chips on a transistor doubles every 18 months (initially every year)."

Heh, something seems incorrect here...

...transistors in a chip...

Instead of considering LCD, Sony introduced the FD Trinitron/WEGA series, a flat version of the CRT. CRT out-performed LCD for a few years, but ultimately lost decisively to LCD in 2001. In contrast, by backing LCD, Samsung grew to be the world's largest manufacturer of the better performing LCD.

Samsung too did make trinitron tubes. If they hadn't done that, then consumer grade televisions and computer monitors would have sucked from 1996 to 2001 since the LCD wasn't cheap enough yet to be a real competitor in quality.

The moral of the story isn't that they shouldn't have backed the CRT, but that Sony shouldn't have ignored the LCD.

Sony was dumb in not continuing CRT development. If they would have optimised their flat screen Trinitron technology with faster phosphors for green and blue (just like with the red), they would have dominated 3D displays for many more years. The engineering, film production and gaming communities would have appreciated this. Another lost Sony opportunity.

@marko

So you are saying that Sony should have invested a lot more to stay in the lead a bit longer? I attended SID (Society for Information Display) meetings for years. The writing was on the wall for the CRT quite a long time ago. The benefits were obvious and it was really only a matter of time.

Plasma displays held their own for a while (due to the slow refresh rate of early LCDs). Even they have fallen by the wayside now. They remain cheaper than LCDs, but their power consumption is enormous in comparison to the latest LED backlit LCD displays.

Moore's Law will continue to be popular in the contexts in which it is used because it's short and pithy. It's easy for anyone to grasp, regardless of its grounding in truth.
I doubt that people responsible for investing significant amounts of money regard Moore's Law as being particularly reliable.

LCDs and plasmas will be in the dust bin along side CRTs in ten years thanks to OLED. Step.