Ok, so, this is off-topic, apologies since the coverage per se was quite interesting.
But the story of slamming Tom Watson, CEO of IBM in 1942, for saying "There is a worldwide market for perhaps five computers" is such an old canard and unfair to the visionary Watson that it deserves to be met at every turn.
Firstly, nobody has yet to find a primary source to back up this quote. And people have looked. The first known sources of what is probably a myth is from the early 1980s, leaving a gap of 40 years.
Second, even if Watson did say such a thing in the 1940s, then, as Gordon Bell has pointed out, it would have a been a pretty good prediction: it held true for 10 years.
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Nick, you commented something similar over on my blog, so I will respond there (http://petersmagnusson.com/)
Ok, so, this is off-topic, apologies since the coverage per se was quite interesting.
But the story of slamming Tom Watson, CEO of IBM in 1942, for saying "There is a worldwide market for perhaps five computers" is such an old canard and unfair to the visionary Watson that it deserves to be met at every turn.
Firstly, nobody has yet to find a primary source to back up this quote. And people have looked. The first known sources of what is probably a myth is from the early 1980s, leaving a gap of 40 years.
Second, even if Watson did say such a thing in the 1940s, then, as Gordon Bell has pointed out, it would have a been a pretty good prediction: it held true for 10 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson#Famo us_misquote