Internet companies might follow the cellular telephone model and offer cheap PCs at below cost, to get customers to sign up for more lucrative network services.
Predictor: Schmidt, Eric
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for The New York Times, Peter Lewis quotes Eric Schmidt. Lewis writes: ”‘We believe there will be a category of networked computers in many different forms, in portable versions and desktop versions,’ said Eric Schmidt, chief scientist at Sun Microsystems Inc. in Mountain View, Calif. ‘They will exist and they will be very successful, and not just from Sun and Oracle. The price points are going to be pretty low, and they’ll look more like consumer electronics.’ … Mr. Schmidt at Sun said Internet companies might follow the cellular telephone model and offer cheap PCs at below cost, to get customers to sign up for more lucrative network services.”
Biography:Eric Schmidt was chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems from 1983-1997, where he earned international recognition as an Internet pioneer. He was also instrumental in the development and widespread acceptance of Java – Sun’s highly successful 1990s Internet programming language. He later worked as chief executive at Google. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: Doubts About the Fantasy of a $500 ‘Network PC’
Quote Type: Paraphrase
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=2c27c5c94a6c20dada97a1054fe41c91&_docnum=2&wchp=dGLbVlz-lSlzV&_md5=f2e93e5490569470da1a89b1c7be41fe
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Cooley, Theresa M.