Xerox -- What they could have been ...
I just finished reading the book " Dealers of Lightning -- XEROX PARC and the dawn of computer age" . Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research centre) was the hotbed of computing Innovation in the 70's and invented so many things that we take for granted today -- the World's first personal computer , Laser printer , Ethernet , GUI (Graphical user interface) , 3-D graphics chip .
Its an amazing tale of how Xerox failed to see the value of most of its innovations and how other firms ultimately profited from it ( Apple,Microsoft....) . Xerox PARC housed the best researchers in the country during the 70's , who later founded great silicon valley firms such as SGI, 3com , Adobe .
Isn't tech world full of irony ?
I just finished reading the book " Dealers of Lightning -- XEROX PARC and the dawn of computer age" . Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research centre) was the hotbed of computing Innovation in the 70's and invented so many things that we take for granted today -- the World's first personal computer , Laser printer , Ethernet , GUI (Graphical user interface) , 3-D graphics chip .
Its an amazing tale of how Xerox failed to see the value of most of its innovations and how other firms ultimately profited from it ( Apple,Microsoft....) . Xerox PARC housed the best researchers in the country during the 70's , who later founded great silicon valley firms such as SGI, 3com , Adobe .
Isn't tech world full of irony ?
posted by Cogito at
Sunday, June 19, 2005
5 Comments:
Living in the Bay area and working here, I've heard about the Glory days of Xerox.
I think I saw a TV Program on Xerox sometime back.
Something that will stay forever all over the world - Xerox is become synonomous with Photocopy.
Its certainly Ironic.
By
Narayanan Venkitu, at 5:17 AM
It is nothing but fate, that this company couldn't capitalise on the innovations it made.
As Mr.narayanan had said, we used to refer "xerox" for photo copying, very often that the local singapore staff didn't understand it (in my initial days here). Then we changed our way of telling the same.
By
Ram C, at 2:47 PM
Absolutely it is an irony ....
I think they were well ahead
of time.. i also read one article
on Xerox where the author mentions about 'EUREKA' - XEROX's
Knowledge management software
and how successful implementation
it was.
By
VINAYAK BHAGWAT, at 5:13 PM
Hi! you have been 'tagged'!!
If you dont know what that is, check my blog ;)
By
Bhaskar Sree, at 7:25 PM
venkitu -- True. Valley is full of such stories.Btw, where do you live in the Bay area ? I lived in Sunnyvale for around 3 years.
Ram.c -- its fate combined with inaction.
vinayak -- thx for that trivia
joey -- done the honors
By
Cogito, at 10:45 PM
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