“When I saw people rushing to the store to buy Windows ’95, it was one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. It shows just how primitive computing still is … Information should come across a network.” Software should be held on central servers and updated on a continuous basis: you’ll get the latest version whenever you switch on.
Predictor: Ellison, Larry
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for The London Guardian, Jack Schofield interviews Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Schofield writes: ”The PC industry is doomed. The future is an appliance called a Network Computer or Web TV. That, at any rate, has been the story reported over the last six weeks, often under ridiculous headlines … While there’s clearly a market for electronic appliances, only a fool would claim NCs will soon wipe out the PC business. The NC’s main protagonist has been Larry Ellison, boss of Oracle Corporation, which supplies the market-leading database used on minicomputers and mainframes. Ellison started by rubbishing PC software while sharing a platform with Microsoft’s Bill Gates at a conference in Paris. He followed that up with speeches at Telecom ’95 and at his own shareholders’ meeting last week … Others joining the NC side include Sun’s Scott McNealy and Jim Clark of Netscape. Ellison said: ‘When I saw people rushing to the store to buy Windows ’95, it was one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. It shows just how primitive computing still is … Information should come across a network.’ He reckons software should be held on central servers and updated on a continuous basis: you’ll get the latest version whenever you switch on.”
Biography:Larry Ellison was the founder of Oracle and a leading entrepreneur in the 1990s. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: October 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Language/Interface/Software
Name of publication: Guardian (London)
Title, headline, chapter name: Computing: The Appliance of Network Science; Jack Schofield Explains Why Oracle’s Boss Thinks the Future is Bleak for the PC
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 6
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney