5 ms·

Quite prescient: > Jobs: The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network.

Quite prescient: > Jobs: The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people—as remarkable as the telephone.

increment_i 12y ago
Even though it sounded hyperbolic at the time, I doubt even Jobs himself realized this was actually an understatement.
joshvm 12y ago
He even alludes to smartphones: > Jobs: The developments will be in making the products more and more portable, networking them, getting out laser printers, getting out shared data bases, getting out more communications ability, maybe the merging of the telephone and the personal computer.
- ekianjo 12y ago
  That's so generic it could simply refer to laptops and not smartphones or tablets. Btw I don't know why people think Smartphones are so innovative, they simply are evolved versions of PDAs that we started to have already in the 90s. The "future" was already out there for a long time, it just took many steps to reach an optimal form.
- TorKlingberg 12y ago
  I think "telephone" here referred mainly to landlines. Mobile phones were rare in 1985, and completely analog.
tomasien 12y ago
Just realized I double posted this - awesome quote for 1985
tdicola 12y ago
Is it really that prescient? By 1985 there were lots of BBSes you could dial into and connect with people from across the nation. In fact what would become America Online was just starting out as a BBS. The internet was available at most colleges, and tools like email and usenet were in full use. I think his statement is like someone right now saying electric cars will be a huge thing in the future.
- ihnorton 12y ago
  On the other hand, how long did it take Microsoft to figure that out - remember the Windows 95 TCP/IP stack? edit: note, Windows 95 originally didn't have a TCP/IP stack! The point is, plenty of smart people missed this boat for years, and I don't think it was at all obvious in 1985 that getting on a network would be the driving use case for widespread computer adoption by "non-techie" people.
  - jchimney 12y ago
    trumpet winsock and hours of troubleshooting different configs :) irq settings etc
  - tonyedgecombe 12y ago
    It did have a tcp/ip stack but it wasn't installed by default, it was one of the optional extras. What it didn't have was a web browser, you needed the plus pack for that.
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    > On the other hand, how long did it take Microsoft to figure that out - remember the Windows 95 TCP/IP stack? Having a good TCP/IP stack core isn't about figuring out that plugging into a national computer network is one of the key values of a computer, its about knowing which national network will be the key one (and, more specifically, which technology stack that one will be built on.) The web -- the bit that made the Internet win that battle as the consumer-facing network that would matter -- was fairly new when Windows 95 was released and hadn't even been invented when work on Windows 95 began. At that time, dialup, largely-text mode offerings that didn't rely on a TCP/IP stack not only dominated local BBS's (some of which were part of national interBBS networks), but also represented some of the biggest (inter)national consumer-facing services to which computer users were likely to connect (like CompuServe, which had already secured leadership in that space when Jobs gave his 1985 interview.) > The point is, plenty of smart people missed this boat for years, and I don't think it was at all obvious in 1985 that getting on a network would be the driving use case for widespread computer adoption by "non-techie" people. It was widely accepted. Its true that in 1985 it wasn't at all obvious that the Internet or any specifically TCP/IP-based network would be the specific network, the recognition that connecting to a large-scale network was a compelling feature and likely to become the most compelling feature was widespread in 1985.

increment_i 12y ago

Even though it sounded hyperbolic at the time, I doubt even Jobs himself realized this was actually an understatement.

joshvm 12y ago

He even alludes to smartphones: > Jobs: The developments will be in making the products more and more portable, networking them, getting out laser printers, getting out shared data bases, getting out more communications ability, maybe the merging of the telephone and the personal computer.

ekianjo 12y ago
That's so generic it could simply refer to laptops and not smartphones or tablets. Btw I don't know why people think Smartphones are so innovative, they simply are evolved versions of PDAs that we started to have already in the 90s. The "future" was already out there for a long time, it just took many steps to reach an optimal form.
TorKlingberg 12y ago
I think "telephone" here referred mainly to landlines. Mobile phones were rare in 1985, and completely analog.

tomasien 12y ago

Just realized I double posted this - awesome quote for 1985

tdicola 12y ago

Is it really that prescient? By 1985 there were lots of BBSes you could dial into and connect with people from across the nation. In fact what would become America Online was just starting out as a BBS. The internet was available at most colleges, and tools like email and usenet were in full use. I think his statement is like someone right now saying electric cars will be a huge thing in the future.

ihnorton 12y ago
On the other hand, how long did it take Microsoft to figure that out - remember the Windows 95 TCP/IP stack? edit: note, Windows 95 originally didn't have a TCP/IP stack! The point is, plenty of smart people missed this boat for years, and I don't think it was at all obvious in 1985 that getting on a network would be the driving use case for widespread computer adoption by "non-techie" people.
- jchimney 12y ago
  trumpet winsock and hours of troubleshooting different configs :) irq settings etc
- tonyedgecombe 12y ago
  It did have a tcp/ip stack but it wasn't installed by default, it was one of the optional extras. What it didn't have was a web browser, you needed the plus pack for that.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > On the other hand, how long did it take Microsoft to figure that out - remember the Windows 95 TCP/IP stack? Having a good TCP/IP stack core isn't about figuring out that plugging into a national computer network is one of the key values of a computer, its about knowing which national network will be the key one (and, more specifically, which technology stack that one will be built on.) The web -- the bit that made the Internet win that battle as the consumer-facing network that would matter -- was fairly new when Windows 95 was released and hadn't even been invented when work on Windows 95 began. At that time, dialup, largely-text mode offerings that didn't rely on a TCP/IP stack not only dominated local BBS's (some of which were part of national interBBS networks), but also represented some of the biggest (inter)national consumer-facing services to which computer users were likely to connect (like CompuServe, which had already secured leadership in that space when Jobs gave his 1985 interview.) > The point is, plenty of smart people missed this boat for years, and I don't think it was at all obvious in 1985 that getting on a network would be the driving use case for widespread computer adoption by "non-techie" people. It was widely accepted. Its true that in 1985 it wasn't at all obvious that the Internet or any specifically TCP/IP-based network would be the specific network, the recognition that connecting to a large-scale network was a compelling feature and likely to become the most compelling feature was widespread in 1985.