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10 Apple Predictions That Turned Out to Be Wrong

Wired's Dumb Apple Predictions

Trying to predict what Apple will do, or how its every product will affect the market place and how we use technology, is quite a sport.. Everyone needs to get in on the action, Engadget, Gizmodo, even we here at Switched aren't above reporting every tiny rumor concerning the "alternative" computer company.

A side effect of all this Apple-prediction frenzy? Sometimes, people miss the mark. By quite a bit. Which is why Wired has compiled its list of the 15 dumbest Apple predictions.

One big example is when Michael Dell (of Dell Computer) said Apple should merely "shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders," in 1997, a year before the return of Jobs and the release of the iMac that led to the company's slow painful climb back to relevance.

To be fair, not all the predictions were dumb, at least in the most classic sense of the word.

For example, Matthew Lynn of Bloomberg said that, "the iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks." The iPhone sure is popular, but it's only really had an impact at the upper end of the market place. People who normally spend $400 on a fancy smart phone are buying it, not the people who take whatever comes free with their plan. 'Time' magazine "Invention of the Year" or not, the iPhone still qualifies it as a "luxury bauble."

Some of the prognosticating turned out to be outright absurd, however, like Robert Paul Leitlao's prediction that by the end of 1999 gamers would have flocked to the Mac. Or that the AppleTV would have a similar cultural impact as the iPod. Oh, and there's more. Check out the article on Wired for the full list.

From Wired

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