Re: [NTLK] No Business Case for Another Newton?

From: Rodney Withers (mryendor_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Jul 26 2001 - 15:36:25 EDT


Intriguing email Ed.

I was in the same boat as some of the situations you
described companies using the Newton.

I worked in the P&C insurance industry and conducted a
wireless pilot. Newtons would have been the optimum
choice due to my claims agents being on the road and
requiring the need to access information and initiate
transactions for the mainframes, wirelessly.

The bigger issue with Apple is control as you
mentioned but more importantly the lack of experience
and know how to play with "big time corporations and
Industries".

What is the likely hood that Apple employees have
worked industries you have mention and I, myself, have
worked in. I would venture to say that number is low.

They need to heed the words of their campaign "Think
Different!"

rw

--- Ed Kummel <tech_ed_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> --- Rodney Withers <mryendor_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
> <snip>
> > The creation of the Newton opened the flood gates
> on
> > possiblities Apple couldn't speak to. They were
> > imposing a new way of doing business i.e. health
> > care,
> > insurance, police, postal service, and etc. The
> lost
> > opportunity was not only release schedules but
> poor
> > ability to show how the Newton could be the
> "digital
> > assistant" in more ways than just a electronic
> > secretary.
> <snip>
> > When Apple can reveal how their products (Newton)
> is
> > the next essential element to allow someone like a
> > police officer to save a person's life, they'll
> not
> > only have demand but a better understanding of a
> > consumer's core need.
> >
> > Apple still has a shot at this because certain
> > industries such as pharmcueticals, health care,
> and
> > parcel were growing industries using Newton PDA
> > devices when they killed the product. That's big
> > money
> > folks
> <snip>
>
> Self promotion has NEVER been Apple's strong suit.
> From my experience in dealing with Apple from a
> distribution perspective, Apple seems to have no
> clue
> as to how to let the public know how to use their
> products. And when they have been shown a potential
> mass appeal, they will outright refuse to create any
> kind of incentive to those companies who can do the
> most good...and most of the times, Apple, when
> confronted with a small player and a big player,
> will
> go with the small player because Apple gets to
> dictate
> terms...Apple is afraid of loosing mindshare so as a
> result, they don't allow major players access to
> their
> products.
>
> I speak from experience on this. As I'm sure other
> long term people on this list have heard before from
> my, in my previous life, it was my job to create
> distribution channels for high tech gadgets! The
> company I worked for rented wireless communications.
> From pagers to PDAs, I played with them all! I had
> ample opportunity to sample all the major players in
> the handheld arena. From the AT&T EO, the Newton,
> HPs
> OmniGo, IBMs Simon, Sony's PIC1000, running Magic
> Cap.
> My biggest distribution channel participant was
> Hewlett Packard. They supplied me with thousands of
> "Demo" units with which to "seed" the waters to get
> their product in as many hands as possible. Starting
> with the HP200LX, I coupled this device with a
> portable Motorla ARDIS wireless modem and created a
> wireless palm top computer. This continued with
> coupling the AllPoints card with the HP300lx (an
> WinCE
> device) and getting an all-in-one wireless PDA! (the
> EO had a cellphone option which was very clean and
> nicely integrated. the Simon WAS a cell phone, one
> of
> the best designs for a long time...Motorola's Marco
> and Envoy both had builtin wireless ARDIS
> modems...we
> even had Nokia 9000 l's that were a pleasure to
> use!)
>
> But it was the Newton that attracted the most
> attention from my end users. Everyone wanted to play
> with one.
>
> My end users included people from the US Highway
> department, several race-track owners, and Goddard
> space center...they wanted something that could
> provide reliable telemetry and the Newton fit the
> bill
> nicely. Additionally, companies like Mitel and BDM
> were looking at inbuilding use for employee
> telemtry...employees walked around with their Newts,
> which were equipped with wireless network cards, and
> anyone anywhere could be pin-pointed! Plus, when you
> got into an office, you plugged the Newt into the
> Siemens phone system, and all your information was
> instantly available...In all, my end users would
> have
> been responsible for the purchase of hundreds of
> thousands of units! I even got my end user's buyers
> in
> contact with high level sales in Apple for the
> Newt...but Apple refused to work with any of my end
> users. The racetrack and highway department wanted
> to
> take the Newt out of it's case and build them into
> the
> vehicles with only the LCD showing in the
> dash...Apple
> refused to let them do this, claiming reverse
> engineering clause in their contract...Apple would
> not
> budge even when the total number of units was
> increased to 75,000!
> Mitel and BDM, asked Apple for coding help to get
> their wireless networks to work with the Newton.
> Apple
> refused to release key hooks to the OS for the same
> reason as above! (eventually Mitel DID get the Newt
> working wirelessly in their building in
> Reston...They
> invited me over for a demo and it was the coolest!
> Something right out of startrek! Open the "Names"
> address book, find an employee, there is a new
> action
> called "Find this person" and the room number would
> display in a popup window along with their idle
> time.
> )
>
> I even then tried through normal distribution
> channels, but none of the Newton dealers had the
> capabilities of ordering Newtons in the quantities
> we
> needed (the largest could only order 100 newtons a
> week...at that rate, the smallest order ot 50,000
> newtons would take over 9 years to complete!)
>
> So, my customers gave up! I did what I could and set
> them up with Hewlett Packard...who was only too
> happy
> to create special purchase incentives and
> distribution
> capabilities for any customer I set up for them...
>
> This is something that Apple just doesn't get. and,
> they probably never will understand!
> Ed
> web/gadget guru
>
> =====
> note: This does not constitute a sig file...
>
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