10 hilariously incorrect tech predictions

 

 

Predicting the future isn’t easy especially when it comes to the ever-evolving world of technology. But it doesn’t stop people giving it a go.

While some just miss the mark, others can get it laughingly wrong.

Here are 11 hilariously incorrect predictions about the future of technology.

Tech prediction fail 1:

“Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”

Darryl Zanuck, executive at 20th Century Fox, 1946

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Tech prediction fail 2:

“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.”

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, 2007.

Tech prediction fail 3:

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”

Thomas Watson, president of IBM, 1943.

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Tech prediction fail 4:

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.”

William Orton, President of Western Union, 1876.

Tech prediction fail 5:

“Everyone’s always asking me when Apple will come out with a cell phone.  My answer is, ‘probably never’.”

David Pogue, The New York Times, 2006.

 

Tech prediction fail 6:

“Almost all of the many predictions now being made about 1996 hinge on the Internet's continuing exponential growth. But I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.”

Robert Metcalfe, founder of 3Com, 1995.

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Tech prediction fail 7:

“Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop.”

Time Magazine, 1968

Tech prediction fail 8:

“The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.”

The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Company, 1903.

Tech prediction fail 9:

“Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput.”

Sir Alan Sugar, 2005.

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Tech prediction fail 10:

“Cellular phones will absolutely not replace local wire systems.”

Wireless communication inventor Marty Cooper, 1981.