on 07-08-2000 2:33, Brian Pearce at bpearce@cloud9.net wrote:
> To ignore this, and insist that the discontinuation of Newton products was
> simply a matter of a personal disagreement, is ridiculous. (This makes about
> as much sense as the claims that Apple introduced the G4 Cube strictly because
> NeXT also produced a cube-shaped computer, and not because modern components
> made such a striking design possible and affordable.)
I'm sorry, but if you reread Steve Jobs comments about the Newton at the
time you'll see that there was more than a bit of spite going on there, I
remember quite a few people at the time that foresaw him axing it and mind
you this was before the makeover of Apple.
> Given the amazing success of the Palm platform, I'm not entirely convinced
> that the MessagePad, as useful as it had become by the MP2100, would have been
> more than a marginal success. The PDA category has been moving towards smaller
> pocket products, and I suspect only a pocket-sized device would have been able
> to provide real competition of any sort. That would require new product
> development, which was a diversion of resources Apple management wanted to
> avoid at the time.
I personally don't think that the size factor was such an important thing if
it was marketed right, we all carry it after all, again dig up all of te
blunders that were made in launching and marketing the Newton and it's easy
to know why it never really " made" it.
If it would have been clear that it every manager in the country needed one,
it would have done really good.
As for size, once the money was made they could have launched a cheaper
smaller and lighter version, of course, but in the end I think that Steve
Jobs just plainly made a huge mistake in ignoring the possibilities of the
PDA market.
Remember that "one OS" thing at the time, I'm sorry but that was plain bull,
though simplifying the product line made a lot of sense, of course.
Don't get me wrong, I see a lot of merit in what he did with Apple
(since there might not have been a company around anymore if he wouldn't
have been there) but don't tell me that he needed to ax the Newton for that,
it doesn't make sense.
Robert Benschop
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