J. Clarke wrote:
In , says...

With credit to the web site:
http://www.rinkworks.com/said/predictions.shtml

We have the following (bad) predictions:
(Enjoy!)

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas
Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

Nobody who has looked for a source for that statement has ever found it.
And it's questionable, as there was no such thing as a computer as we
know it in 1943 and IBM didn't have one until 1948, so why would he have
any opinion at all concerning the market for such devices?

However it sounds much like what really did happen in 19_5_3, when IBM
went out 20 companies with a presentation about the 701, where they
expected to get at best 5 orders and they got 18.


You are probably right. The quote I went searching for was along the
lines of the following one (and that brought me to the others):

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

The long translation of the ENIAC reveals the way the EE's were thinking.