PCs will not turn into dumb terminals and will need intelligence and storage capacity … You’ll still need a way of storing the applications that you download from the network and your personal data … PCs will be transformed … You’ll find that the PC will take on new forms; wallet PCs will be carried around and you’ll see kiosk PCs and portable PCs that will all be hooked up into a unified network that provides a rich set of applications.
Predictor: Gates, Bill
Prediction, in context:A Business Wire report on the European IT Forum 1995, sponsored by market-research company International Data Corp., includes a segment on a presentation by Microsoft CEO Bill Gates: ”‘Multimedia is becoming standard on PCs,’ Gates said. ‘The key theme is the idea of the PC as communications tool.’ However, Gates differed sharply from [3Com CEO Larry] Ellison in his vision of the future form of the PC. PCs will not turn into dumb terminals, said Gates, and will need intelligence and storage capacity. ‘You’ll still need a way of storing the applications that you download from the network and your personal data,’ said Gates. But PCs will be transformed, he said. ‘You’ll find that the PC will take on new forms; wallet PCs will be carried around and you’ll see kiosk PCs and portable PCs that will all be hooked up into a unified network that provides a rich set of applications.’ Gates also said that over the next year Microsoft will work with a major computer vendor to develop a wallet-sized PC, a concept that he has often expounded on during keynote speeches, but the likes of which has never come to market. This could be in part due to the lack of success that other handheld computers have experienced, he noted. Yet Microsoft remains committed to the wallet PC, he said, and plans to co-develop a product that will carry a pricetag of under $500 that will have good wireless communications abilities and that will provide connectivity with PCs. Microsoft is also working with telecommunications companies to develop telecom infrastructures so that the cost of communication – apart from data and content – will be ‘almost free.'”
Biography:Bill Gates, the most influential technology entrepreneur of the late 20th century, was the primary author of the prediction-packed 1995 book “The Road Ahead” and is the founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: September 5, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Internet Appliances
Name of publication: Business Wire
Title, headline, chapter name: Ellison, Gates Jockey for Position on Info Highway at IDC’s European IT Forum
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=10b583b35d8db4e927149c6d774af9fe&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVlb-lSlzV&_md5=5b3885951838996becae48e23ee86726
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney