The top 10 worst technology predictions of all time

Gordon Crovitz has recently written an interesting op-ed about why technology predictions are mostly “bunk.” In his op-ed piece, he listed his “Top 10 Worst Technology Predictions” of all time as the following:

• "Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further developments," Roman engineer Julius Sextus Frontinus, 10 A.D.
• "Everything that can be invented has already been invented," Charles Duell, commissioner for the US Patent Office, 1899.
• "The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys," Sir William Preece, chief engineer at the British Post Office, 1878.
• "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" H.M. Warner, Warner Bros., 1927.
• "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers," Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
• "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, 20th Century Fox, 1946.
• "The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000 at most," IBM executives to the eventual founders of Xerox, 1959.
• "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home," Ken Olsen, founder of mainframe-producer Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.
• "No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer—640K ought to be enough for anybody," Bill Gates, Microsoft, 1981.
• "Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput," Sir Alan Sugar, British entrepreneur, 2005.

On the other hand and according to Crovitz, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke was an exception to the rule that predicting the future of technology was hard as he predicted everything from satellite communications systems to the Internet. His op-ed is worth a quick read.