Probably the best article I have seen on this topic was the Special
Report, "Why Did Apple Kill the Newton?" by David MacNeill, executive
editor of Pen Computing (Vol. 5, No. 2, June, 1998). Unfortunately, I
could not find a copy of it on the web. I will apologize, in advance,
for the length of the post, but I thought it might help to recount the
article's possibilities.
1. Newton never made any money. MacNeill concludes that it is clear
Newton was a losing proposition financially for most of its five-year
history. However, he states "Apple management did not understand how far
ahead of the game they were, and that they gave up too soon to reap the
rewards that a healthy Newton platform could have provided." Very likely.
2. Steve Jobs hates John Sculley. Since Sculley started the Newton (and
also sacked Jobs) , MacNeill surmises that Jobs fired the former exec's
flunkies and snuffed out the pet project(s). Unlikely.
3. Intel wouldn't commit to the StrongARM. MacNeill notes that Intel
made the StrongARM and, because of Apple's commitment to the PowerPC
architecture, he didn't want to "owe" anything to Intel. Likely.
4. Newton would compete with Mac NC's. It was thought, at the time, that
the next big thing from Apple was a stripped down Mac that would rely on
a server computer for everything except processing power. MacNeill
notes that if Apple was thinking of this type of thin client, it would
have been silly to have the Newton as well. Iffy.
5. Bill Gates bought the education market. While MacNeill does not fully
ascribe to this concept, he was part of a Newton OS2.0 party at Comdex
when Gates saw the MP2000 for the first time. MacNeill said he was told
Gates "flipped out" over the technology. Former Newton developers have
also indicated that Apple got an undisclosed amount of cash in addition
to the $150 million stock buyout -- perhaps increasing the total to half
a billion. "Among the stipulations to which Jobs allegedly agreed was
that he would prematurely snuff Newton, thereby deliberately angering
the education market so they would adopt Windows CE-based eMate-like
devices." Iffy.
The conclusion? It was probably a case of opportunity squandered. After
Sculley left, Spindler basically had no understanding or commitment to
Newton. It was Spindler who began the talk of selling off the Newton or
axing it. Gil Amelio's book seems to support this, and basically shows
that Amelio liked it, because of the technology, but that he knew it ---
along with a whole slew of things at Apple --- was being handled wrong.
In all likelihood, Steve Jobs came along and just put the finishing
touches on a killing that had been going on for some time. He didn't
allow it to spin off because if the technology did in fact take off,
stockholders would have been extremely dissatisfied.
On Sunday, February 3, 2002, at 01:32 PM, ianfoster wrote:
>
> On 2/3/02 9:55 AM, "Brian Pearce" <bpearce_at_cloud9.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>> And, rumour has it that the amount of money that Bill Gates invested
>>> seems like a lot, but all the rumours I've heard mention that Apple
>>> had a big chunk of cash on hand even through that period. So
>>> although $150 million ain't hay, it wasn't as if Apple was starving.
>> Apple's problems in the era immediately before the return of Steve
>> Jobs were
>> largely internal disorganization; but despite this (and the alarming
>> press
>> the contrary, which still continues in spite of the company's more
>> recent
>> success), the company was still in solid financial condition.
>> Microsoft's
>> investment was largely a PR maneuver that gave Apple the illusion of
>> stability
>> (even if it wasn't really necessary).
>>
>> BRIAN/bpearce_at_cloud9.net
>>
> Yes. Apple has consistently reported, over the last 5 years, cash on
> hand
> from $2 Billion to $4 billion USD - yes that=B9s BILLION, and the $150
> mil
> from M$ was an attempt by Gates and his gang to head off the impending
> monopoly lawsuits, amongst other things. As with most things Microsoft,
> it
> failed. There was also talk that the M$ payment was part of a legal
>
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