

Disruptive technology: Dead companies do tell tales - taylorbuley
http://www.cio.com/article/2850122/innovation/disruptive-technology-dead-companies-do-tell-tales.html

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dalke
"Xerox which many will remember invented but did not successfully capitalize
on the mouse, the laser printer and the graphical user interface"

This suggests to me that author doesn't really care about historical accuracy.

Engelbart's team at SRI invented the mouse. No one doubts that.

Xerox invented the laser printer, and 'Gary Starkweather’s laser printer made
billions for Xerox' (quoting Malcolm Gladwell's article "Creation Myth" in the
New Yorker), or from
[http://www.landley.net/history/mirror/timelines/xeroxparchis...](http://www.landley.net/history/mirror/timelines/xeroxparchist.html)
, in 1986 "Xerox's printing business, made possible by PARC's invention of
laser xerography, reaches $1 billion per year."

Hardly unsuccessful! Granted, it could have done better, and it missed the
transition to desktop laser printers, but that's a different point.
Unfortunately, it seems that people conflate the two. I think it's because
they didn't know these big photocopier machines used lasers, while personal
computers started with cheaper printer technology.

"Inventing" the GUI is a toss-up, depending on if you think NLS from
Engelbart's group, or Sutherland's Sketchpad was a GUI. I would like a more
precise "desktop metaphor GUI", and yes, that was not successfully capitalized
at Xerox.

