Gallery

The ten worst IT predictions of all time

Posted on 26 Sep 2006 at 17:50

9 E-cash

"Internet users... have come to understand the unique ability of electronic cash systems to empower them," claimed the founder of DigiCash Inc in 1995, which presumably is why the world is awash with digital money these days. It's hard to look down the back of the sofa without finding the small change from those trying to act as financial intermediaries on the internet. Offbeat schemes like beenz, flooz, e-gold and Idollars, often requiring users to download a wallet and interact over SSL security, have come and mostly gone. It turns out there's another secure method of payment - it's called a credit card, and for the most part consumers are covered by their card issuer in the event of fraud. Person-to-person transactions have been the only major success in this field, and PayPal has risen on the back of its association with Ebay. PayPal even suggests that money-by-email methods could go mainstream: "if you owe your friend $6.50 for lunch, you could email it to him," it claims.

10 No Home PC

Talk about missing a market. Ken Olsen, founder of Digital, never really got the concept of the PC. A shame given his company's area of expertise was, er, computing, and was at the time the number two US computer manufacturer. It was an early example of "doing a Gates" and made Olsen a geek figure of fun. He later claimed his comments were taken out of context and that he was referring to supercomputers, but despite trading until the late 1990s, Digital was eventually bought and absorbed into Compaq.

Author: Stewart Mitchell