Pro tip: that 2004 Wired article saying the iPod would die by 2010 helped me win $50
Last week I was cleaning out my dad's garage in Sacramento and found a box of old Wired magazines from 2003 to 2005. I flipped through one from 2004 and there it was, a whole piece saying the iPod was a fad and would be gone by 2010 because phones would never hold enough songs. My buddy Dave runs a little trivia night at a bar on Tuesday and the theme that week was tech flops, so I brought the magazine as my proof. The host asked what device every expert said would kill the iPod and half the room yelled Zune, which was wrong. I pulled out the page, read the quote out loud, and got the bonus point plus the $50 pot. The crazy part is the same issue predicted smart watches would flop because nobody wants a screen on their wrist. I have been collecting bad predictions ever since and this one is my favorite. Has anyone else actually cashed in on an old magazine quote like this?
Hold up, the SAME issue said smart watches would flop because nobody wants a screen on their wrist? That is wild and kind of amazing. Wired basically went two for two on being wrong in one magazine, and you only got paid for one of them. The smart watch call is even funnier looking back because now half the people I know check their wrist every five seconds. Whoever wrote that piece must have felt real silly by 2015 or so. You should go back through that whole box and see what else they got wrong, there is probably a goldmine in there.