If the synergy between cable and telephone is real, some believe it will shift the center of technology innovation away from the personal computer business. Mr. Ellison, Oracle’s chairman, in particular argues that growth in the future will not be in stand-alone personal computers, but instead in the television set-top boxes and in hand-held information and communications devices that will connect wirelessly to the information highway. Mr. Ellison is also betting that there will be a boom in demand for supercomputers, which will act as the information servers for the powerful new networks. These machines will provide the raw computing horsepower to deliver simultaneously thousands of movies or other items from electronic data bases.
Predictor: Ellison, Larry
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for the New York Times, technology columnist John Markoff reports on the proposed merger of phone company Bell Atlantic and Tele-Communications Inc., a major cable corporation. Markoff writes: ”If the synergy between cable and telephone is real, some believe it will shift the center of technology innovation away from the personal computer business. Mr. Ellison, Oracle’s chairman, in particular argues that growth in the future will not be in stand-alone personal computers, but instead in the television set-top boxes and in hand-held information and communications devices that will connect wirelessly to the information highway. Mr. Ellison is also betting that there will be a boom in demand for supercomputers, which will act as the information servers for the powerful new networks. These machines will provide the raw computing horsepower to deliver simultaneously thousands of movies or other items from electronic data bases.”
Biography:Larry Ellison was the founder of Oracle and a leading entrepreneur in the 1990s. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Internet Appliances
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: A Merger of Giants: The Vision; A Phone-Cable Vehicle for the Data Superhighway
Quote Type: Paraphrase
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Section D; Page 1; Column 3: Financial Desk
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney