"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.
"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.
"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.
"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all
of
your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just
have
to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition
of
weight training."
--Response to Arthur Jones, who solved
the "unsolvable"
problem by inventing Nautilus.
"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."
--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.
"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
-- Bill Gates, 1981