Origins of Today's Technology Trivia Quiz

Answer: AT&T

The prediction was 900,000 but the actual figure was 109,000,000, so not one of McKinsey's greatest predictions. To be fair, most other analysts continued to underestimate the cellular market, so McKinsey was far from unique.

For an interesting view of how cell phones developed and emerged see:
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2007/3/2007_3_8.shtml

AT&T has changed ownership since then but is still a huge brand in the USA telecomms market.

Answer: Thomas Watson

Thomas Watson joined IBM or as it then was Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTRC) in 1914. He passed away in 1956.

Thomas Edison was a prolific & famous inventor with more than 1,000 US patents to his name, probably best remembered for the humble lightbulb.

Ken Olsen was a well known computer executive who co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation in 1957.

Dr John H. Watson was the fictional character who was an ally of Sherlock Holmes.

Answer: San Diego Zoo

If you want to watch this slide of history it is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw

By 2011, YouTube has grown so much that there are 65,000 new video clips uploaded and 100,000,000 videos streamed each day. It's said to be the fastest-growing website in internet history.

Answer: Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation

Fairchild Semicondctor was founded in 1957 and was very successful initially as one of the two companies with microchip technology. In the late 1960s several executives left to start up other companies. These became known as the 'Fairchildren'. Perhaps the most famous example was Robert Noyce himself who left together with Gordon Moore (he of Moore's Law), the Head of R&D from Fairchild, to set up a Intel in 1968.

IBM is a goliath of the computing world and has been involved in many breakthroughs. Not this one though.

Digital Equipment Corporation was founded in 1957. It mainly sold mid-sized computers and its products were very popular in the 1960s & 1970s. However, by the 1980s the advent of the microcomputer caused its business to decline.

Cray is a company known for its Supercomputers, which started in 1972.

Answer: Mr Watson, come here I want you

"Once more..." and "We few..." are from Shakespeare's "Henry V" - got to get some culture in somehow.

"Is that Pizza Hut?" highlights the problem of being an early user of the telephone, fax machine or many other technology innovations. They don't really have any value until there are lots of other people using them. This is called the network effect.

Answer: 140

Dorsey had the honour of tweeting the first official tweet on March 21st 2006.

The advent of Instant Messaging, Texting and Twitter has led to a marked difference in the way younger generations use the English language.

Answer: John Sculley

John Sculley was a successful ex-President of Pepsi and Steve Jobs had persuaded him to come to Apple. They fell out though and Jobs tried a coup d'etat to usurp Sculley but it failed.

Jobs came back to Apple in 1996 and seems to have done pretty well since then...

Spindler succeeded Sculley as CEO of Apple and Amelio succeeded Spindler. Neither was very successful. They shouldn't feel too bad though. Success in the fast paced world of technology is often quite fleeting.

Answer: Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is home to Apple, Intel, Google, Facebook, Oracle, HP and scores of other technology giants. Success is often fleeting though so it's the ecosystem that is most important.

Entrepreneurs are drawn to the Valley, and venture capitalists are everywhere searching for the next big idea. Perhaps most importantly, people are actually encouraged to fail. No-one is considered to have proper 'street cred' until they have been through a couple of failed start-ups. It helps to hone future success.

Silicon Mountain Range doesn't exist (as far as I know).

Silicon Roundabout is a small area of London (near Old St) that is a much smaller equivalent of Silicon Valley.

Silicone Enhancements would perhaps be something more relevant for the entertainment industries of Southern California...

Answer: Harvard

The number of Facebook users is difficult to keep up with but by early 2011 it was well past 500 million.

Social media in general i.e. people communicating via Twitter, Facebook etc. is said to have had a significant impact on the pro-democracy demonstrations in North Africa and the Middle East in 2011.

Answer: Sir Tim Berners-Lee

Charles Babbage was a 19th century mathematician and engineer who originated the concept of the programmable computer, and is considered by many to be the 'father of the computer'.

Gordon Moore was one of the co-founders of Intel Corporation. His law (Moore's Law) states that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an IC doubles approx every 2 years. It has held true for over 50 years (since first IC in 1958) and helps to explain the incredible increase in performance, reduction in size and cost of electronics items.

One day though, this incremental and predictable improvement will be rendered totally obsolete by a new technology innovation. Perhaps it will be Quantum Computing, perhaps it will be something we haven't even dreamt of yet.