- "Who in their right mind would ever need more than 640k of ram!?"
-- Bill Gates, 1981
- "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
--Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science,
1949
- "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
--Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
- "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked
with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that
won''t last out the year."
--The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
- "But what ... is it good for?"
--Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting
on the microchip.
- "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
--Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
- "This ''telephone'' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered
as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
--Western Union internal memo, 1876.
- "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would
pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
--David Sarnoff''s
associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the
1920s.
- "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn
better than a ''C,'' the idea must be feasible."
--A Yale University
management professor in response to Fred Smith''s paper proposing
reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found
Federal Express Corp.)
- "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
--H.M. Warner, Warner
Brothers, 1927.
- "I''m just glad it''ll be Clark Gable who''s falling on his face and not
Gary Cooper."
-Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in
"Gone With The Wind."
- "A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports
say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you
make."
--Response to Debbi Fields'' idea of starting Mrs. Fields'' Cookies.
- "We don''t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
--Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
- "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
--Lord Kelvin,
president, Royal Society, 1895.
- "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil?
You''re crazy."
--Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project
to drill for oil in 1859.
- "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
--Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
- "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
--Marecha
Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
- "Everything that can be invented has been invented."
--Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
- "Louis Pasteur''s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction".
--Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
- "The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the
intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon".
--Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary
to Queen Victoria 1873.
orever be shut from the
intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon".
--Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary
to Queen Victoria 1873.
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