From: Rick Ludwig (bensisko_at_mac.com)
Date: Mon Jul 19 2004 - 18:50:37 PDT
I know we all complain about Steve killing off the Newton before it's
time, and how great the Newton is, BUT we have to keep something very
important in mind, and that is that the Newton simply wasn't selling in
the numbers needed to make it a good business choice. THIS is the big
mysterious reason why Steve killed it (that, and the eMate would have
competed with his new iBook). The fact is that Steve, and yes Apple
too, is out to make money. Apple could invent an anti-gravity car, but
if there wasn't a market it's much better for them to canabolize the
technology and see if any of it can be put into an iPod. Was it a cold
decision? Yes, but then again most business decisions are. If the
Newton had been created on the Microsoft campus, Bill would have thrown
money at it and forced people to accept that this was the new way of
computing (Pocket PC, Tablet PC). Would it sell? Maybe, maybe not, but
it would probably still be on the market. In fact, the Pocket PC, and
this has been said before, could almost be the illagitamte offspring of
the Newton.
Do I disagree with Steve about the Newton? Yes. If I could see that
sacraficing the Newton would make Apple the company it is today, would
I do it? I don't know, but even had Steve not killed the Newton when he
did, it's pretty unlikely that it would make it into this, post OS X
world.
I view the Newton kinda like I view TV Series. I hate it when they
cancel a good series (Futurama), but I'm always glad they did it before
they made stuff that sucks (X-Files). So be glad they quit while they
were ahead (but not finacially).
-Rick
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