Jacques Gauchey's
New Media Letter
January 1996
"Jean-Louis Gassee, my 1995 laureate for technology person of the year."
"The bland leading the bland." Is this what the world of information technology has come to today?
On one hand Microsoft is driving the world of computing into the ultimate bore. Windows 95 is turning whole segments of the population off the joy of computing and off computers altogether for a long time. On the other hand, Apple Computer, which used to be our screen to the future, is lacking the courage to go on changing the world.
Technology pundits, the "realists" of this world, would like us to believe that the sheep mentality is what drives technology. "Use Windows 95" because (almost) everybody does it and this is the serious thing to do.
These "experts" are also the first to ridicule any new and refreshing idea or solution. Oracle's Larry Ellison's $500 network computer is immediately labeled by the majority as a return to the dumb terminal of the past. Sun Microsystems' Java is considered by Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's Vice President of Research and the in-house visionary, to be another second-class language. (Unfortunately for him, Java has just been licensed by Microsoft). The Apple Computer's Newton, a serious attempt to create a computer for the rest of us, is still the laughing stock of the technology "experts."
Isn't it time to stop those second rate pundits from treating us like infants? Isn't it time to stand-up and demand the technology we deserve?
"The computer business is an innovation business not a commodity business." Silicon Graphic's Ed McCracken's view of the computer industry is right on the mark. People love innovation. People want technology to be at their service and not the opposite. That's how Sony became a consumers' favorite. And by not following the common wisdom, Akio Morita's Sony became one this century's industrial icons. Microsoft, in spite of the constant brain-washing by the media, is nobody's icon.
That's why I would like to congratulate Jean-Louis Gassee, my 1995 laureate for technology person of the year. Gassee is the last of the great Apple leaders and visionaries, who, since his dismissal by the Tribes of the Dull in 1990, has worked with a "crazy" passion on his BeBox, a new PC using a new operating system (an heresy according to "experts").
When asked how his powerful $1,600 to $3,000 machine - which will be on the market in early 1996 - would be used, Gassee has an honest answer: "I donÍt know." You bet that some of us, not well-read, and ignorant as we are, will know and find some great ways to use the BeBox and invent new paradigms of computing. According to Gassee, hundreds of developers have already contacted him. Something for the "experts" to mull about.
Jacques Gauchey
G.a Communications
The New Media Industry Link
PO Box 210 703
San Francisco, CA 94121
©1996 Jacques Gauchey. Jacques Gauchey is the author of
La Vallee du Risque - Silicon Valley,
a book on long term technology trends (Plon, Paris, 1990) and an international consultant in the New Media industry. His firm, G.a Communications, assists companies and the international investment community in setting-up their global multimedia strategies both in America and in Europe. Jacques is frequently asked to speak about New Media trends. His clients include Apple Computer; Dynaware USA; Governement of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg; and Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon Technopole. Contact him by email:
Jacques Gauchey.
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