[NTLK] How many Newtons were sold?

[Andrei Chichak]

When I was actively dealing with Newtons back in the '90s, Apple had a standing rule to not compete with their support organizations (developers or retail channels). We couldn't buy Macs or Newtons directly, we had to go through the retail channel. We were able to buy 2000s in quantities like 30 at a time. The restriction was on our part, we only needed 30 at a time.

I see Apple's reluctance to sell 1000s of units at a time as not poaching sales from the retailers.

As you can see when trying to buy a Mac today, the price is fixed. If you go to Apple direct or through their cheesiest of retailers, it is the same price. 

I can't imagine that Apple wanted to piss off their retailers by scooping a 1K unit order. As they said, go to your Newton shop. The Newton shop would order from Apple, they might want a certified cheque up front, but a million dollar order is probably not something that a Newton shop could finance themselves. The Newton shop might not want to take an order that big, but it was probably more about finances than politics.

A