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History of the Apple Newton
Sabah Arif writes "We've all heard of Apple's Newton, the portable handheld device under John Sculley's rule at Apple that debuted to big media attention and much fanfare but never managed to take a strong footing in the marketplace. The same handhel that went on to be 'Steve'd' when Mr. RDF killed the project after taking control of Apple. That's the extent of knowledge most of us have with regard to Apple's first handheld device. OS Opinion sheds light on the early days of the pocket Apple." From the article: "Apple in the late eighties had become stagnant. The Macintosh had become Apple's cash cow like the Apple II that had preceded it. To protect the Mac, Apple was hesitant to start or pursue any project that might compromise the company's revenues. Several people in the corporation were weary of this approach, and began to look at the future of computing. One of those people was Steve Sakoman."
Written four years ago, here's a piece about Apple's other historical tablet initiatives, and speculation about a Mac tablet (there's always speculation)...
Kevin Fox
The Newton was way ahead of its time in many aspects: versatility, portability, object-oriented based language (at first), etc. If the Newton had flourished as well as our current Palm devices and Pocket PC devices, we might all be using Newtons, or a derivative, instead.
Of course, we can all thank the Newton for paving the way to a lot of our mobile device concepts. Well, the Newton, and Star Trek.
I am a meat popsicle.
Though, the Newton really was a failure. It did many things right, but it was too bulky and costly: the Palm Pilot was less sophisticated, but it really matched what consumers needed.
I know some of you don't like the idea of Tablet PC but I think they are terrific personally. I've always wished that Apple would dump their Newton technology into a Tablet style machine. It would be fantastic for note taking during meetings and would allow me to better edit and distribute my notes. Not to mention the ones with the foldable keyboards are a more flexible form factor for mobile professionals like me. And I'd rather use a Mac than Windows with its underlying unix goodness and sweet interface.
Who knows if we'll ever see it though. It's not clear if there is a big enough market (I think there is but the products aren't good enough yet) and Steve Jobs just doesn't seem fond of the idea. But if anyone could really make it work, I think it would be Apple. Guess I have to keep dreaming...
I had several Newtons - an MP 100, an MP 120, and finally an MP 2000 (that was later upgraded to an MP 2100). The technology improved dramatically over those generations, and I really would love to see what would have emerged had development continued.
Since the Newton, I've used Palm, PocketPC, and Sharp Zaurus PDAs, and have yet to find anything I consider a worthy successor to the Newton. The integration of all the applications was seamless, and the software was truly designed to be used on a PDA, not just scaled down from some desktop application.
The form factor was a little clunky - either a smaller pocket-sized device, or a full-size tablet would have been better in my opinion - but I'm still looking for an overall user experience that's comparable, and haven't found it.
Subscribers can see articles in the future? So what? Everyone gets to see them in the future.
In a MP 120 with the 2.0 version of the OS, write "Egg Freckles" and then hit Assist.
In the prototype MP 2000 units (code named "Q"), the first run or EVT units: Write "About Newton" and press Assist. In the DVT and production units it says "What about Newton?" followed by "What about xxx?" where xxx is the name of each developer who worked on the project (sequentially).
In the EVT units, instead of the developer names, it uses Larry, Moe, Curly, and Shemp.
Also, you gotta love the Area 51 Easter egg in the first 2.0 Newtons.
There was also a Solar Eclipse easter Egg, but I can't remember what OS version/models had it. (Possibly the MP100.)
I love the Newton.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Old news for Nerds. Stuff that doesn't matter. This is a rather universal sentiment nowadays, but the cliche that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it is quite often accurate. This applies to nerds as well, especially in technology. Looking at what was done with the Newton can help us understand why it failed and potentially help us to prevent similar problems from happening in future products.
I am a Newton user (MP130), and my favorite feature is being able to create ink outlines. No other PDA that I know of includes the functionality out of the box.
Have you ever gone to a Disney theme park and been asked to take a survey? The handheld they use to write down your answer is a Newton.
..... or so have I been told by an Apple higher up.
Apple has a contract to supply Disney with them until 2010.
I owned a MP130. The other problems were the built in software, while innovative, wasn't nearly as streamlined as the Palm PIM suite later released with the Pilot, the device was a bit sluggish, and the screen -- especially the MP100 -- was very hard to see and had a poor contrast ratio, and was really reflective and had lots of glare. Also, the handwriting recognition really sucked. And you're right, they were also pretty expensive. The Newton had a ton of good ideas and was very innovative, but it wasn't quite there.
Why the Apple Newton Failed - written by Larry Tesler, Newton Development lead for two years.