Dive deep into Apple’s monumental product history, and you’ll find that the Apple Newton always manages to stand out from the rest. During the era in which people really only knew Apple for selling computers, Newton was a bold attempt at what a new form factor might be for one.
Now, despite Apple’s valiant efforts, Newton is just a distant memory and a failed vision. But how did the Newton come to be? What did Apple initially want for this new device in its lineup, and how did we end up without it 30 years later?
Apple’s Newton: The Portable, Pocketable Promise of the Future
By the time the Newton was first conceptualized in 1987, Steve Jobs was ousted from the company he founded (but he later returned, of course.) John Sculley was the CEO during the Newton era, and he organized a team to develop a computer that was more akin to a tablet than anything else yet on the market. It would be portable enough to fit in the palm of your hand, enable productivity on the go, and recognize handwriting as its chief innovation.
In fact, when people refer to the Newton in general, they’re almost always referring to a hardware product called the MessagePad, which is a name that again reinforces the emphasis on tablet writing. Newton is actually Apple’s name for its entire line of products incorporating this technology, but it’s now colloquially used as a catch-all name.
The goal was for the device to appear more intelligent than the typical computer, paving the way for a future in which technology better served the needs of its users. Apple came up with the marketing term personal digital assistant, or PDA, to describe Newton, and the acronym ended up sticking around for far longer than the life of the Newton itself.
While handwriting recognition was a flagship feature and a clever advancement for its time, the device was capable of wireless connectivity for sending emails and files, plus touted superior note-taking and organizational abilities over a larger computer without handwriting too. It also supported third-party productivity apps and games.
Who Was the Apple Newton Made For?
Apple aimed squarely at professionals with the Newton. Between the note-taking and handwriting, the calendar and organizational tools, and the email support, this was a computer away from your computer for anyone with a briefcase. Carrying around a Newton also meant you wouldn’t need multiple notebooks, planners, and calculators.
A professional product also came at a professional cost: the Newton debuted with a base price of $699. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $1,475 today—an awful lot of money for what was essentially a glorified notebook with email. While there was a market for the Newton, the price just didn’t land, but that turned out as only one of its many flaws.
What Apple Got Wrong and Later Got Right
Apple eventually discontinued the Newtonfive years later, in 1998. The price was just too high to justify, but the product was also severely plagued by its reputation for poor handwriting recognition. What was supposed to be the main selling point for the Newton ended up leading directly to its demise.
The Newton just wasn’t good at its job: words you wrote with the stylus didn’t accurately translate to text. Apple even released later versions of the Newton before its discontinuation, which fixed a lot of the technical problems, but by that point, the damage had already been done.
Despite the Newton being a dud, it’s easy to see its influence on Apple’s products today.The original iPhone picked up on the legacyNewton left for the world. iPhones and iPads are modern-day PDAs maxed out with features that just weren’t possible in the 90s.
When Steve Jobs first announced the iPhone in 2007, he famously mocked the idea of needing a stylus all the time just to use the screen. Having a stylus is useful for some tasks, but he was right that it should never be a requirement—which, for the Newton, it was.
Apple also got the size right for iPhones and iPads, which sensibly serve two distinct purposes based on their sizes. The Newton was too big for a phone but too small to function as a full-fledged tablet. Plus, they’re way less expensive, have vastly more features and performance, and an all-around better user interface.
Remembering the Apple Newton
In a way, you may argue that the downfall of the Newton was ultimately because it was a concept ahead of its time. The idea was there, but the technology to deliver it was not. While it never won any hearts, at its core, it set a roadmap for the amazing technology we have in the palm of our hands now.
