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Disruptive technology: Dead companies do tell tales
- dalke 12y ago"Xerox which many will remember invented but did not successfully capitalize on the mouse, the laser printer and the graphical user interface" This suggests to me that author doesn't really care about historical accuracy. Engelbart's team at SRI invented the mouse. No one doubts that. Xerox invented the laser printer, and 'Gary Starkweather’s laser printer made billions for Xerox' (quoting Malcolm Gladwell's article "Creation Myth" in the New Yorker), or from http://www.landley.net/history/mirror/timelines/xeroxparchist.html http://www.landley.net/history/mirror/timelines/xeroxparchis... , in 1986 "Xerox's printing business, made possible by PARC's invention of laser xerography, reaches $1 billion per year." Hardly unsuccessful! Granted, it could have done better, and it missed the transition to desktop laser printers, but that's a different point. Unfortunately, it seems that people conflate the two. I think it's because they didn't know these big photocopier machines used lasers, while personal computers started with cheaper printer technology. "Inventing" the GUI is a toss-up, depending on if you think NLS from Engelbart's group, or Sutherland's Sketchpad was a GUI. I would like a more precise "desktop metaphor GUI", and yes, that was not successfully capitalized at Xerox.