John Myles White: Die Sudelbücher

I will bet money that the rumor that Apple is developing a game console is entirely false. Any takers?

I’m glad to see that J. P. Morgan is fighting for the liquidation of Chrysler. As far as I can see, Chrysler has been among the walking dead for decades. It was, after all, bailed out once before, a few years before I was even born. Indeed, Chrysler’s terrible historical performance is so notable that it’s even mentioned in Jolliffe’s book on Principal Component Analysis.

I don’t care how many movies are available to me. As my personal taste as a customer, I want to watch the new stuff so whether we have 10,000 movies or 200 movies doesn’t matter if I don’t want to see any of the movies that we have . . . our assortment is heavily weighted toward newer releases and mainstream staple titles.¹

The quote comes from an interview with Blockbuster’s CEO, who evidently finds Netflix’s success very confusing. Every one of his comments reminds me a great deal of the infamous claim by Ken Olson, the President of Digital Equipment Corporation, in 1977, that,

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.²

It’s rare that you get a chance to watch a CEO of a once thriving corporation publicly reveal his inability to adapt to a changed market. There is a sort of schadenfreude joy to it, along with a reminder that no monopoly is permanent under capitalism.

1. Jim Keyes : Wired.com : Blockbuster CEO ‘Confused by Fascination’ With Netflix↩
2. PiPrograms : Famous Last Words↩