Bill Gates, Sugar worse predictors of Technology

London, Dec 10: Microsoft boss Bill Gates and millionaire British businessman Sir Alan Sugar have been included in a list that highlights the 'Worst Technology Predictions Of All Time'. In 1981, Bill Gates allegedly said that nobody would ever need more than 640 kilobytes of memory on their personal computer.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph in Feb 2005, Sir Alan, the founder of Amstrad, said: "Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput." T3, the gadget magazine, published the list.

"Despite their massive success, both Gates and Sugar have clearly made the odd suspect call and it's easily done," the Telegraph quoted Michael Brook, the editor of the magazine, as saying.

"What seems like the greatest idea to an educated, complex mind may well slip through the cracks and miss the mass market by a country mile. As with everything, winning the gadget game is generally a case of 'the simpler, the better," he added.

The ten worst technology predictions of all time are:

1. "The iPod will never take off" - Sir Alan Sugar in 2005

2. "No need for a computer in the home" - Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corp in 1977

3. "Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within ten years" - Alex Lewyt, president of the Lewyt Corp vacuum company

4. "TV won't last because people would, "soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night" - Darryl Zanuck in 1946

5. In 1933, after the first flight of the Boeing 247, a plane that could hold ten people, a proud Boeing engineer reportedly said, "There will never be a bigger plane built."

6. "We stand on the threshold of rocket mail" - US postmaster general Arthur Summerfield in 1959

7. "Nobody would ever need more than 640KB of memory on their personal computer"- Bill Gates in 1981, allegedly.

8. "The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys" - Sir William Preece, chief engineer at the Post Office in 1878

9. "Spam will be solved" - Bill Gates, 2004.

10. "X-rays will prove to be a hoax" - Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, in 1883.

ANI