Thomas J. Watson

1874–1956 · Head of CTR and then IBM · the man the quote is pinned on

Thomas J. Watson Sr. took over the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in 1914 and renamed it International Business Machines in 1924, running it until shortly before his death in 1956. He is the standard punchline of technology forecasting — the executive who supposedly could not imagine more than five computers — on the strength of a sentence no one has ever traced to him. His actual record is the opposite of the caricature: the company he built spent his final decade pouring money into electronic computing.

Traced to source

1 quote we’ve traced

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers”

Disputed

Not actually Thomas J. Watson

Often misattributed to Thomas J. Watson

Famous lines widely pinned on Thomas J. Watson that we’ve traced to someone else.

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers”

actually Unknown — no documented speaker

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