20 years ago, Steve Jobs made these eerily accurate predictions for the future
Words: Alex Woodhall
Cast your mind back to 1996. Charles and Diana got divorced. The first Mission: Impossible film was released. Google was nothing more than a research project. Amazon a bookselling startup. And Steve Jobs was still in exile from the company he founded, Apple (at least until the end of that year). In January of 1996, Jobs gave an interview to Wired, where he discussed what he foresaw in the future of computers. Turns out he was frighteningly accurate.
Smartphones and easy web access
“There will be Web dial tone everywhere.”
Whilst we’re well past the age of dial-up, Jobs prophesied that the web would be ubiquitous — one look at our smartphones tells us that he hit the nail on the head.
E-Commerce
(Source:Rachel Murray/Getty Images)
“It’s commerce. People are going to stop going to a lot of stores. And they’re going to buy stuff over the Web!”
It’s fair to say with the growth of Amazon, Alibaba, ASOS etc. that e-Commerce has made a significant impact on the shopping landscape. Amazon alone racked up $105 billion in net sales last year and the high street has fundamentally changed because of it.
Cloud Storage
“[Managing storage is] a very big thing in a desktop world. And that may go away. You may not have to manage your own storage. You may not store much before too long.”
Long before we all started storing photos, videos and data in the cloud, Jobs heralded the development of iCloud, Google Drive etc.
Tesla (sort of)
(Source: Tesla)
“Take auto dealerships. So much money is spent on inventory — billions and billions of dollars. Inventory is not a good thing… Wouldn’t it be nice to get rid of all that inventory? Just have one white car to drive and maybe a laserdisc so you can look at the other colours. Then you order your car and you get it in a week.”
Tesla’s business model typifies this. You don’t go onto a car lot to buy a Tesla, you take a look at sample cars before ordering it either online, or through an in-store salesperson.
Microsoft’s bump in the road
“Eventually, Microsoft will crumble because of complacency, and maybe some new things will grow. But until that happens, until there’s some fundamental technology shift, it’s just over.”
Apple is currently the only PC maker showing sales growth and Microsoft, up until recent developments with the HoloLens et al., has been struggling – epitomised by the beleaguered Windows 8 and 10 releases.
(Main image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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