(The author of the ninth is interesting)
"Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development."
- Roman Engineer Julius Sextus Frontius in 10 A.D.
"The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys."
- Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer of British Post Office, 1878
"Everything that can be invented has already been invented"
- Charles Duell, Commissioner for the U.S. Patent Office, 1899
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
- H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers"
- Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943
"Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night"
- Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, 1946
"The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000 at the most"
- IBM executives to the eventual founders of Xerox, 1959
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home"
- Ken Olsen, Founder of mainframe-producer Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
"No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer - 640 kb ought to be enough for everybody"
- Bill Gates, Microsoft, 1981
"Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, and kaput"
- Sir Alan Sugar, British entrepreneur, 2005
Sylvia's world in thoughts and pictures
I miss you Sam!!
I miss you Sam!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What Can I Say?
I'm interested in almost everything. Use to like to travel, but it's too expensive now. I take Tai Chi classes, swim, volunteer in a Jump-start program for pre-schoolers. I'm an avid reader and like nearly everyone these days I follow politics avidly. I'm a former teacher and Special Projects Coordinator for a Telecommunications company, Assistant to the President of a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company. Am now enjoying retirement -- most of the time. I have two daughters, one son-in-law and two sons scattered all over the country. No grandchildren.
8 comments:
I like the Ken Olsen quote, is DEC still in business?
And Bill G., good thing he figured out he was wrong. I'm wondering what will come after the Terabyte!
How such brilliant people can be so wrong.
We really are very short sighted as a race!
Smiles
History can make fools of the "smartest" folks! I'm sure down to the last of them these folks would LOVE to take their words back.
Those are funny -- and even make sense to me! :)
Nice collection. I guess they would not have done so well in a soothsayer tent at a fair either.
Two comments:
1) With savants like this, it's a wonder we've made it as far as we have.
2) Gates' attitude about memory may be somewhat indicative of the corporate mindset that has made Windows such a lousy operating system.
LOL! I am surprised these men made it to their positions given their lack of foresight! And I always heard that Gates was a visionary!
Post a Comment