[ftwinnovations]

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. - Ken Olsen, 1977

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. - Editor of Prentice Hall business books, 1957

There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. - Steve Ballmer, USA Today, April 30, 2007

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

[haberman]

I do not hesitate to forecast that atomic batteries will be commonplace long before 1980. - David Sarnoff, chairman of the Radio Corporation of America, 1955

Machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do. - Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simon, 1956

By the turn of this century, we will live in a paperless society. - Roger Smith, chairman of General Motors, 1986

I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system, and possibly program, of all time. - Bill Gates, Foreword to the OS/2 Programmer's Guide, 1987

Segway will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy. - Dean Kamen, December 2, 2001

Also see: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Galileo_gambit

[bushido]

Quoting these statements are a little absurd. More so, when you consider that all of these statements are in the [their respective] present tense, and not making a declaration or prophecy of any kind.

Let me rephrase some of these for you to illustrate:

- There is no reason [in present time, that I know of as to why] anyone would want a computer in their home. - Ken Olsen, 1977

- I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that [from their current understanding of current applications of data processing that] data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year. - Editor of Prentice Hall business books, 1957

- There's no chance [that I am going to admit to my share holders] that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. - Steve Ballmer, USA Today, April 30, 2007

- I think there is a world market for maybe five computers [currently/at this time]. -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943