visionary

January 22nd of this year marked the 25th anniversary of Apple's introduction of the Macintosh. To mark the occasion, Philip Elmer-DeWitt compiled some choice quotes from the first reviews of the Mac back then. My very favorite is from John C. Dvorak's review in the San Francisco Examiner of February 19, 1984:

The nature of the personal computer is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or anyone else for that matter). Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I don't want one of these new fangled devices.

In the Wall St. Journal Market Watch on March 28, 2007, Mr. Dvorak wrote:

Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone... what Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it's smart it will call the iPhone a "reference design" and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else's marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures... Otherwise I'd advise you to cover your eyes. You're not going to like what you'll see.

Mr. Dvorak has won a number of awards for technology journalism, including the Computer Press Association Best Columnist and Best Column awards, the American Business Editors Association's national gold awards for best online columns of 2003 and 2004, and the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology in 2001.

Bonus Link!

Another perspective on those "new fangled devices" is provided by the inimitable Erin O'Brien. And, along those same lines, there's this.