NEVER SAW IT COMING:The Worst Technology Predictions

of All Time

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1876

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered

as a means of communications. The device is inherently of no value to us.”

WESTERN UNION INTERNAL MEMO1

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

CHARLES H. DUELL, commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents1

1899

“The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.” President of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Company2

1903

WHO THE HELL WANTS TO SEE ACTORS TALK?

HARRY M. WARNER, Warner Bros.1

1927

“I think there is a world market for maybe

five computers.”THOMAS WATSON, president of IBM1

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.” DARYL ZANUCK, 20th Century Fox co-founder3

1946

“There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television or radio service inside the United States.” T. CRAVEN, FCC commissioner2

1961

“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer

in their home.”

KEN OLSEN, president, chairman & founder of Digital Equipment Corporation11977

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“Cellular phones will absolutely not replace local wire systems.”

MARTY COOPER, Motorola engineer and inventor of the first cell phone in 19732

1981

“I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996, catastrophically collapse.” ROBERT METCALFE, founder of 3Com2

1995

“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.”

STEVE BALLMER, Microsoft CEO2

2007

HINDSIGHT IS 20/20. Don’t look back and wish you had upgraded your business

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1http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time/through2.html2http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertszczerba/2015/01/05/15-worst-tech-predictions-of-all-time/3http://www.techhive.com/article/155984/worst_tech_predictions.html

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