on 11/13/02 8:02 AM, Dale Steele at dtsteele_at_mac.com wrote:
>> I know there are people who still use and enjoy them, but my guess would be
>> that the vast majority of people who bought them were _not_ happy with their
>> purchase. If the criterion for success is that a product inspires a small
>> but spirited cult following, then yes, it was a success. But by any other
>> measure - not just how much money Apple blew on it - I don't see how you can
>> call it anything but a failure.
>> I'm glad you're still enjoying yours, though.
I've been thinking about Henry Knorr's logic here (quoted above) and I'm not
sure that he got this exactly right.
Yes, an argument can be made that not enough people who bought one were
happy with their purchase, and possibly because of that, they didn't
convince other people to buy one also. But I'm not sure that's how the
dynamics worked out. Here was my experience with the Newton.
I would be using it, and somebody would see it and ask about it. I would
show it off to them, and they always would say, "wow!" However, when they
asked how they could use it, and I explained, they often thought, that it
was a bit of overkill, and then when they asked the price, any seed of a
thought of purchasing one of these was immediately crushed. That was my
experience, even back with a 120 running 1.3. People liked what it could do,
but couldn't see themselves using it, and certainly couldn't see themselves
purchasing one. Because I traveled full-time, they could understand my
paying several hundred for it, to avoid having to pay $2,000 for a laptop,
but for themselves, they couldn't justify the expense.
I really think that this is more the truth than dissatisfied customers. In
all the years that I have used Newtons, the only people I have convinced to
use one, were in similar circumstances to me, and they all purchased uses
Newtons (mostly because they became interested _after_ 1997). :-)
I think it would be more accurate to say that the Newton was a failure
_despite_ the fact that the majority of people who used them were satisfied
with them. The problem was convincing other people to buy them. This is
where the failure was. The real question is, could Apple have done a better
job of marketing it? Or was it really the simple fact that the Newton was
too much, too soon? Personally, and based on my personal experience with
Newtons, dating back to 1995, I think the latter explanation most fully
explains the failure of the Newton. When the Palm came out, that really was
the beginning of the end of the Newton. It was "good enough" and "cheap
enough" and "useful enough" for most people who shied away from the Newton.
Well, we've hashed this one around so much in the past five years, that I
can't believe we still are doing it. I guess I begin to realize, however,
how monks began to argue how many angels could fit on the head of a pin. ;-)
-- Jon Glass Krakow, Poland <jonglass_at_usa.net> <glasshaus5_at_aol.com>Sometimes the majority only means that all the fools are on the same side.
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