March 10, 2004: Apple sends out a survey to pick out Apple clients, claiming that it’s contemplating relaunching the Newton MessagePad.
“We have to decide why the Apple Newton was not a business success and whether or not there’s an curiosity in re-launching a brand new model of the Newton,” Apple’s survey says. “Your feedback will assist perceive why the Newton failed and if there’s curiosity in re-launching a brand new, improved Newton.”
In hindsight, it appears fairly clear that this obvious “curiosity” in launching one other private knowledge assistant was a approach of doing a little undercover market analysis for the still-in-development iPhone.
Newton MessagePad and the brand new factor
Apple launched the Newton MessagePad in 1993 with the aim of making one of many world’s first PDAs. Apple engineer Steve Sakoman, a passionate advocate of handheld computing, drove the undertaking early on. Whereas at Hewlett-Packard within the Nineteen Eighties, Sakoman developed the HP 110, the world’s first battery-powered transportable MS-DOS PC.
The MessagePad undertaking befell fully throughout the decade-long interval whereas Steve Jobs was away from Cupertino after his boardroom coup try failed. Many considered the Newton as Apple CEO John Sculley’s reply to the Mac. It was his first try and launch a game-changing new product line throughout his tenure as CEO.
Newton flaws make it a joke
Sadly, the Newton expertise didn’t initially work in addition to hoped. The press piled on, printing quite a few jokes concerning the Newton and portray the system as a failure.
Mockingly, as soon as Apple really acquired the expertise proper with later gadgets just like the MessagePad 2100 — which perfected the handwriting-recognition system the Newton included as a central characteristic — Jobs had returned to Apple. He determined to cancel additional growth of the PDA.
Apple formally ended the Newton experiment on February 27, 1998, with Jobs issuing an announcement.
“This resolution is in keeping with our technique to focus all our software program growth assets on extending the Macintosh working system,” he stated. “To appreciate our bold plans we should focus all of our efforts in a single path.”
Apple’s stealth iPhone survey
Nonetheless, by the mid-2000s, Apple’s Mac enterprise was booming. The corporate efficiently moved into different areas as properly, such because the enormously fashionable (and worthwhile) iPod music participant. It solely made sense, due to this fact, that Cupertino would take into account different cell gadgets — with the Newton the apparent reference level.
Inside Apple, two simultaneous iPhone analysis tasks acquired underway: the so-called P1 and P2 tasks. Proper from the beginning, it grew to become clear that each would wish to supply PDA-style performance. However Apple wanted to work out precisely why the Newton MessagePad didn’t click on with clients.
It’s not identified how a lot consideration Apple paid to the suggestions from the client survey it despatched on this present day in 2004, simply three years previous to the unique iPhone launch. Nonetheless, as with the assorted patents Apple filed over time, it’s enjoyable to look again later and see how among the firm’s choices make good sense in hindsight.
Had been you a Newton MessagePad consumer? Depart your feedback under.
