The needs of business, and the extensive market obviously waiting, assured the advent of mass-produced arithmetical machines just as soon as production methods were sufficiently advanced. With machines for advanced analysis no such situation existed; for there was and is no extensive market; the users of advanced methods of manipulating data are a very small part of the population.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Mass-produced machines succeeded because there was a large market. Advanced data machines failed because the market was too small at the time.
- In plain terms
- Business machines sold well because many people needed them, but advanced data tools had few buyers.
- What can you take from it?
- Market demand drives the success of production technologies.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Who is your customer?
- Is the market big enough?
Another view
Small markets can grow into large ones over time.
More from Vannevar Bush
Every time one combines and records facts in accordance with established logical processes, the creative aspect of thinking is concerned only with the selectio…
Permalink to quote #19 If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as wel…
Permalink to quote #21 There will always be plenty of things to compute in the detailed affairs of millions of people doing complicated things.
Permalink to quote #18
Related quotes
It has been shown that, in contrast to everything which classical national economy has hitherto taught, not the producer but the consumer is the ruling factor …
Hjalmar SchachtHjalmar Schacht quote #3 When Commodore acquired Amiga in 1984, the legion of Amiga loyalists thought the world would beat a path to the better-mousetrap door. It didn't happen. The Am…
Jay MinerJay Miner quote #4 'There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.'
Ken OlsenKen Olsen quote #1