One of the philosophies we have at OMD is about looking in more places for insights and one of my little secret sources of insights is very retro - the good old Reader's Digest, apparently the world's best selling magazine and home to a surprising amount of facts (which are a lot better than their lame jokes).
From this month's edition is the top 10 worst technology predictions of all time, which are good to quote in presentations. 5 of my faves below:-
"Next Christmas, the ipod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput" - Sir Alan Sugar, 2005
"No need for a computer at home" - Ken Olsen, founder of DEC, 1977
"Nuclear powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within ten years" - Alex Lewyt, Lewyt Corp Vaccum company, 1955
Tv won't last because people will "soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night" - Darryl Zanuck, 1946
"The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys" - Sir William Preece, chied engineer of the British Post Office, 1878 (not sure what he was engineering if he didn't believe in technology!)
I love it when people go out on a limb like this, so here's my quote for posterity "Facebook will be dead and buried by 2011, and "social media" will have ceased to exist as a term as sharing functionality gets incorporated into all media" - Rob Pyne, 2009
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