Motorola co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha has said he has "never been a great believer" in demand for video. Fortunately for him, Motorola's next Droid and 2GHz smartphones for Christmas will not be able to handle the task.
"There is not a big demand for video calling. It sounds neat and all, but who are we, Dick Tracy? No, I doubt anyone will want it."
Other CEOs have made similar underestimations about their customers'desires:
In 1885, The Great Johnson Buggy Whip Company passed a 75% price hike onto their customers. When the populace complained, he had this to say: "Look, you're gonna need something to whip your horses with, and we're the only company to sell them. There are only 2 things in life that are certain; death and the need for buggy whips."
In 1918, Jeffrey Douglas, of Zipcar Automotive Company, famously said, "Who the hell would want their car to shift the transmission for them? Automatic transmissions are a waste of time."
And, just this week, Steve Jobs: "Here is the new iPhone, free of those things no one would want, like 4G compatability, or a removable battery, or increased talk time, or the ability to NOT use AT&T, or Flash support, or an HDMI port, or..."
