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Home Page > News > Bet they wish they hadn't said that!

Bet they wish they hadn't said that!

Posted on Friday, 29 February 2008 02:17PM by John Chambers

History is littered with examples of industry experts underestimating the future potential of new ideas. Some famous examples are listed below. When you come to assess the scope of your new ideas, make sure you engage your creative mind and think big!
  • "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." --Popular Mechanics, 1949
  • "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." --Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
  • "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.
  • "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" --H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
  • "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.
  • "If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." --Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.
  • "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." --Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
  • "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
  • "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981
Do you have any more like this? Please share it by contacting me at johnchambers@sword.co.uk
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