Predictions blunders on technology

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.”Bill Gates, 1981

“But what… is it good for?”Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

“Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.”Marechal 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.

“So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’”Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer.

“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.)

This is what was said in the entertainment industry…

“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.”

“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.