The key to growth is an instrument I want to call the telecomputer or device that accesses Internet … we will have a $1,500, 1995 multimedia computer for a few hundred dollars sooner than you think.
Predictor: Bell, Gordon
Prediction, in context:In the keynote speech at InternetWorld 1995, pioneering computer scientist Gordon Bell, formerly of Digital Equipment Corporation and then a research leader at Microsoft says: ”What’s happened now? What is this phenomenon that’s come together? First it’s the communications. That’s bandwidth for our old friend e-mail, FTP, and in this case, remote procedure call, voice, and whatever. Much of the InternetÕs use is people communication in chat groups and looking at bulletin boards. There’s the content issue coming with databases and now multimedia as the important data type. These give us library access, education, and entertainment. And finally computation. That is the ability of the nodes to compute. All of these uses are conspiring to allow commerce in this attractive and engrossing media. Backing these up is the bandwidth explosion and the platform explosion with larger, faster and cheaper machines. The key to growth is an instrument I want to call the telecomputer or device that accesses Internet … we will have a $1,500, 1995 multimedia computer for a few hundred dollars sooner than you think.”
Biography:Gordon Bell proposed a plan for a U.S. research and education network in a 1987 report to the Office of Science and Technology in response to a congressional request by Al Gore. He was a technology leader at Digital Equipment Corporation (where he led the development of the VAX computer) and with Microsoft. (Technology Developer/Administrator)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Cost/Pricing
Name of publication: InternetWorld 1995 Conference
Title, headline, chapter name: It’s Bandwidth and Symmetry, Stupid!
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://research.microsoft.com/~gbell/IntWorld/tsld002.htm
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney