From: Rick Ludwig (bensisko_at_mac.com)
Date: Sun Aug 15 2004 - 15:25:50 PDT
I say that's a bunch of BS., and here's why: I think the Occum's Razor
we're looking for is, simply, Steve's Ego. Newton was not created at
Steve's Apple and, thus, not a part of Steve's vision. We all know
about Steve's dislike towards the Newton (which could account for the
fact that we see no Max OS-X tablets), so why, then, is it so
impossible to accept that he'd kill the project? Why do I reject the
'Cutting into Powerbook Sales' notion? Mainly because if that were
true, Newton would have sold more units and it would have been harder
to cut something that made money. Newton sales just were not there.
Okay, if you're a self-admitted Geek, then yeah, you could probably
have used a Newton as your portable computer, but for the average
person, even the average Mac person, a Newton would not have cut it as
their only machine. At this point in history, there was still a
hierarchy of Desktop -> Laptop -> PDA. Laptops rarely replaced desktops
as a "main" system, and PDAs weren't even imagined to replace a laptop
(they still aren't), so the idea that Newton cut into Powerbook smacks
of Newton users wanting to think their platform died for a more noble
cause. The wrench in the argument comes, though, with the eMate. The
eMate sales were better than MessagePad sales, but still not
signifagent to say Powerbook sales plummeted because of the eMate.
Notice that money is part of the equation, BUT if it was Scully behind
the wheel, he would have found away to get Newton to work (as he saw
the Newton as the future of Apple). So, if you look at the facts, there
are two logical conclusions: 1) Newton was not making Apple money, and
2) Steve hated Scully for booting him from Apple. I guess I would still
give Jobs the raspberry and tell him that my Newton still works just
fine, but you can clearly see that the iPod was a move to get consumers
back onto the Apple "Consumer Electronics" bandwagon without reminding
people of the Newton. Remember Steve's thought process: The iTMS is
only there to sell iPods which is only there to promote Mac OS X, which
is only there to sell Apple computer hardware. In Steve's mind, that's
still where the money is. Newton, as an OS, did nothing to promote the
buying of new Apple hardware.
Oh yeah, and just as Steve Jobs didn't come up with the Mac OS, the
Newton was NOT the "brain child" of Scully, though Scully did feel it
was his contribution to the world...somehow. And anyone that tells you
that they KNOW FOR SURE why Steve killed the Newton is full of it. Only
Steve and God know why Steve killed the Newton.
-Rick
> the real issue was that it caused the PowerBook sales
> to plummet!
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