Month: October 2001

“Napster is ready to roll. Now, it’s up to the industry to finally take the opportunity to build a viable business.”

Bertelsmann e-commerce executive Andreas Schmidt, who remains in Teutonic denial about Napster’s perpetual schedule slips, BusinessWeek, 26 October 2001

“The idea was to provide users with an easy-to-use checkout process. Clearly, there is some fine-tuning that needs to be done.”

eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove, on the auction service’s sneaky moves to force its credit-card processing system on sellers, TheStreet.com, 30 October 2001

“You probably couldn’t get an article written about a library in 1999; in 1999, all of the stories were about how to sell dog food over the Net.”

Alexa Internet CEO Brewster Kahle, on the publicity received by his Internet Archive side project, The New York Times, 29 October 2001

“There have been a lot of buyers waiting for XP.”

Dell CEO Michael Dell, on the PC maker’s plans to sell overpriced hardware to run Microsoft’s bloatware, NewsFactor Network, 26 October 2001

“We are in the stage in the PC industry as the auto industry was when you had to be an auto mechanic to drive a car. Now, we’re starting to make PCs for ordinary drivers.”

Windows XP wrangler-in-chief Chris Jones, on the new operating system’s emerging demographics, The New York Times, 25 October 2001