Top 10 Worst Tech Predictions That Failed

Microsoft's CEO laughed at the iPhone's price and lack of keyboard on camera, declaring it would never gain market share — it went on to create a $3 trillion company.

The Ethernet inventor predicted the internet would catastrophically collapse in 1996 and literally ate his words by blending the column into a smoothie on stage.

The 20th Century Fox studio head dismissed television as a passing fad, unable to imagine it would become the dominant entertainment medium for over half a century.

Gates confidently predicted at Davos that spam would be eliminated by 2006 — twenty years later, spam still accounts for roughly 45% of all email traffic worldwide.

The DEC founder and minicomputer pioneer couldn't envision personal computing, missing the revolution that would make his own company obsolete within two decades.

The president of Lewyt vacuum company predicted nuclear-powered home appliances, reflecting the atomic age's wildly optimistic view of nuclear energy in consumer products.

JPMorgan's CEO called Bitcoin a fraud and predicted its collapse, only to later launch JPMorgan's own blockchain division as crypto matured into a multi-trillion dollar asset class.

Musk has repeatedly promised full self-driving capability is one to two years away since 2015, making it the tech prediction that keeps failing in the most public way possible.

When Xbox Game Pass launched, many predicted it would destroy game sales and developer revenue, yet the gaming industry has grown larger than ever alongside subscription services.

Microsoft's CEO laughed at the iPhone's price and lack of keyboard on camera, declaring it would never gain market share — it went on to create a $3 trillion company.

The Ethernet inventor predicted the internet would catastrophically collapse in 1996 and literally ate his words by blending the column into a smoothie on stage.

The 20th Century Fox studio head dismissed television as a passing fad, unable to imagine it would become the dominant entertainment medium for over half a century.

Gates confidently predicted at Davos that spam would be eliminated by 2006 — twenty years later, spam still accounts for roughly 45% of all email traffic worldwide.

The DEC founder and minicomputer pioneer couldn't envision personal computing, missing the revolution that would make his own company obsolete within two decades.

The president of Lewyt vacuum company predicted nuclear-powered home appliances, reflecting the atomic age's wildly optimistic view of nuclear energy in consumer products.

JPMorgan's CEO called Bitcoin a fraud and predicted its collapse, only to later launch JPMorgan's own blockchain division as crypto matured into a multi-trillion dollar asset class.

Musk has repeatedly promised full self-driving capability is one to two years away since 2015, making it the tech prediction that keeps failing in the most public way possible.

When Xbox Game Pass launched, many predicted it would destroy game sales and developer revenue, yet the gaming industry has grown larger than ever alongside subscription services.