1977: “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” — Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corp.
1981: “No one will need more than 637KB of memory for a personal computer. 640KB ought to be enough for anybody.” — Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft.
1981: “Cellular phones will absolutely not replace local wire systems.” — Marty Cooper, inventor.
1989: “We will never make a 32-bit operating system.” — Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft.
1992: “The idea of a personal communicator in every pocket is a “pipe dream driven by greed.” — Andy Grove, then CEO of Intel.
1995: “I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” — Robert Metcalfe, founder of 3Com, inventor of Ethernet.
2003: “The subscription model of buying music is bankrupt. I think you could make available the Second Coming in a subscription model, and it might not be successful.” — Steve Jobs, in Rolling Stone
2007: “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.” — Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO.
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” — Attributed to Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
The inimitable Stewart Alsop, editor of Info World, at the time wrote about the Apple McIntosh shortly after its introduction in 1983 – “No one wants to use the McIntosh’s icon based system”. Duhh!
1978: “There is no need for a personal computer.” —Howard Ladd, President Of Sanyo.
Got another one from way back when from a marketing person at Brother, the typewriter/word processor company. “PCs won’t make it. Ther’re only used for word processing so why would people go to the expense to buy one when there’s an alternative”.
Got another one from way back when from a marketing person at Brother, the typewriter/word processor company. “PCs won’t make it. Ther’re only used for word processing so why would people go to the expense to buy one when there’s an alternative”.
I have been around long enough to remember most of these when they were ‘fresh’. Sending you (((Hugs))). – ace