Wrong-Expert Predictions



Charles H. Duell, Office of Patents, 1899

Everything that can be invented has been invented.



A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that carried ten people.

There will never be a bigger plane built.



Lt. Joseph Ives after visiting the Grand Canyon in 1861.

Ours has been the first, and doubtless to be the last, to visit this profitless locality.



Albert Einstein, 1932

There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.



Decca executive, 1962, after turning down the Beatles.

We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.



Margaret Thatcher, 1974

It will be years--not in my time--before a woman will become Prime Minister.



Business Week, August 2, 1968

With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the US market.



Popular Mechanics, 1949

Computers may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.



Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.



Western Union memo, 1876

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.



David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urging investment in the radio in the 1920's.

No imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?



H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

Who wants to hear actors talk?



Gary Cooper, after turning down the lead role in Gone With The Wind.

I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.



Response to Debbi Fields' idea of Mrs. Fields' Cookies

Market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.



Hewlett Packard excuse to Steve Jobs, who founded Apple Computers instead.

We don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.



Thomas J. Watson, chairman of the board of IBM.

I think there's a world market for about five computers.



Admiral William Leahy, U.S. Atomic Bomb Project.

The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.



Marechal Ferdinand Fock, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre

Airplanes are interesting toys, but they are of no military value whatsoever.



Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929

Stocks have reached a permanently high plateau.



U.S. Secretary of Navy, December 4, 1941

No matter what happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping.



Lee DeForest, inventor

While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially it is an impossibility.



William Thomson, Lord Kelvin English scientist, 1899

Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax.