In the 1970s, deep inside a research center in Palo Alto, a group of young Xerox engineers quietly built the future. They created a machine unlike anything the world had seen. A screen you could point at. A small device that let you move a cursor with your hand. Windows that opened and closed. Icons that behaved like real objects. Even the ethernet cables that would later connect the modern internet. It was called the Alto, and it was decades ahead of its time.
But inside Xerox headquarters, the company still viewed itself as a copier business. The innovations coming out of the research lab felt strange and experimental, far removed from office equipment and paper. Management could not see the commercial value of a graphical interface or a computer mouse. The Alto never reached the mass market, even though it held the blueprint of the personal computer revolution.
In December 1979, Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC through a technology exchange agreement. Engineers showed him the graphical interface and the mouse. Jobs later said it was like seeing the future unfold in real time. He returned to Apple energized and committed to transforming these concepts into a consumer machine. The result was the Macintosh, launched in 1984, the first widely accessible computer with a graphical interface.
People often say Apple stole from Xerox. The truth is more complicated. Xerox had built extraordinary tools but did not move to commercialize them. Apple recognized their potential and reshaped them into products that could reach millions. The modern computer industry grew from that moment when one company overlooked its own inventions and another saw the opportunity clearly.
The story of Xerox PARC remains a reminder that innovation alone is not enough. Vision requires the ability to recognize value, invest wisely, and understand how transformative ideas can reshape the world.
Story based on historical records.
9 replies (most recent on top)
I recently re-read fumbling the future, if you have not read it and especially if you still work for X Isuggest you do.
Basic nose dive from the 914
Would have, should have, but didn’t.
Nothing more to do here except die.
I don’t care who bought what for how much. This place is bad luck and the management is utterly and completely useless.
I think we are all done here. 🤷 maybe we all have been for a very long time.
Financial Services.
@bf careAR and bridge sensors. Calling stuff AI but it not actually being AI.
Xerox should have just stuck with "deliver a copier that works" instead of "deliver a copier and we have to immediately have a field technician stop by your place and order about 5 new parts because it doesn't work"
Is that to hard of a business model?
@bf IT as a Service is the next brain drain
Those ball drops are the famous ones. Since then we’ve seen “digital paper”, “3D metal printing”, ACS. Anyone have others? We have also seen a slew of attempts to reassure investors/Wall Street such as the current “reinvention” and prior “Own IT”, “re-imagine”, etc. rinse and repeat. At least the market finally seems to be seeing XRX and the management team for what it is, and assigning a more appropriate valuation.
Story based on historical records: Xerox is not a good company.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1iaqy5KF9eU
Nice cut and paste. Old news. Really old.