From: Richard Kilpatrick (dmc12_at_btconnect.com)
Date: Mon Apr 19 2004 - 02:43:43 PDT
On 18 Apr 2004, at 17:03, Rick Ludwig wrote:
> The problem, when talking about how successful the MessagePad
> "might-have-been" is that most estimates are based off of what the
> market currently is, but that is flawed logic because the market would
> have been completely different and handhelds would be much more
> advanced then they are today (i.e. Apple would have been keeping Palm
> and MS on their toes).
Newton OS predates MS and Palm, though, and Apple were notorious for
dropping the ball on all sorts of technologies. When I had my first
Windows CE device - a Casio Cassiopia (or whatever it was called), it
was far more user friendly that my MP120 - but did far less. Likewise
the next one, a 620, had colour - and was incredibly impressive. Then I
got a 680, and recently - the last WinCE machine I used - I had an
HP820, one of the best notebooks available at the time (and I fitted a
rare 32Mb upgrade to it). The eMate, despite the lack of RAM, is far
nicer to use, far more robust. It doesn't need colour because the tasks
don't call for it. Windows CE is much better at doing 'online' stuff.
Where Apple would have excelled in the consumer market was with the
eMate, but with some clever fiddling. Had I been making decisions at
Apple at this point, I would have cut Newton OS development back, had
the eMate hardware redesigned with the 2100 SA architecture, and
continued making two eMates - one eMate 2100, at the old
education-discount friendly price of $800[1], and the original 25MHz
eMate with a couple of 'kids' applications for $200-250, blowing
V-Tech's 'learning computers' out of the water by providing a product
approximately twice the price, but with build quality, real
functionality, a real screen etc. I wouldn't cripple the real Newton
apps, just have a 'friendly' front end that could be disabled so really
young kids could use it. It's the same machine they'd be using in
schools, too, so parents would feel much happier buying it than a
V-Tech toy.
Gets a whole generation of kids familiar with the Apple logo, the
Newton, and probably encourages parents to go with Macs instead of PC
for the 'real' computer.
Richard
[1] Primarily so schools don't feel they're being ripped off.
Technology moves, but offering something they just budgeted $800 for
for $250 would be worse than, oh, jacking up the prices on your
inventory of Macs because DRAM got expensive.
-- Tasty Other - Because Far Too Much in Life Makes Sense Music for download - coming soon (RIP MP3.com) G.A.S. http://www.dmc12.demon.co.uk/music/ Platform: PowerMac G5 2.0GHz Dual, 20" LCD, Logic, Hammerfall. -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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