The original Apple tablet: Marketing lessons from the Newton
We all know Apple's original tablet had some hard-core fans, but it bit the dust--hard--back in 1998, not long after Steve Jobs returned to the company. Some say the touch-screen Newton, one of the early "personal digital assistants," was ahead of its time. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it's interesting to look back at Apple's marketing efforts and wonder if there are any lessons to be learned and how they might be applied to spinning a new tablet, if indeed it's a real product.
Of course, a lot has changed in 10 years. Or has it?
What do you guys think? Will Apple have a hard time selling a new Newton?
Other Newton ads:
What is Newton?
Wanted
Where is Newton?
Most boring meeting in the world
Gotham City
Who is Newton?
After the break, check out a bonus Newton 2008 mock ad.
Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter. 
crApple is all marketing and no engineering. An intel computer, with a 35 year old FREE operating system with some cute animated graphics added by crApple's marketing people and graphics artists to make it look nice and bubbly. All for ridiculous over $3000. Want software for it? Forget it unless you are looking for hacked garbage thrown together by 14 year old kids.
CNET should be giving more attention to more worthy companies that are more engineering oriented and (maybe) less into this marketing BS...like HTC, Sony, HP, etc etc.
one: your a troll
two: OSX is unix based, and even though it share an ancestry with Linux, they are not the same. i assume Linux this is the free os you thought you were referring to. if you were referring to unix, i submit that comparing OSX to UNIX is like comparing a toaster oven with Optimus Prime. poor comparison.
three: marketing is what makes money. apple is a business, publicly owned (just like HTC, Sony, and HP, btw), and its priority is to the stockholders, i.e. to make money, preferably more. just because apple does its job well doesnt mean cnet shouldnt cover them, or offer more coverage to your companies you submitted just because their focus is in line with your priorities.
four: apple does a fine job with engineering, and even their midrange and low end are both known just as well as their "pro" line for longevity. i have a buddie still running an eMac, and he hasnt had to perform repairs since he got it.
Five: your still a troll
What's probably the most ironic thing about your comments is that CNET rates the MB lines much higher than the competitors. They even run Windows faster than offerings from HTC, Sony, HP, etc., etc. So I am not getting the comments on engineering/hardware. I don't even need to include links since we're on CNET. Just search the reviews.
Eat up Martha.
scores are at an all-time low, so I've come up with these
academic alerts. [hold stack of cards] You will receive one as
soon as your grades start to slip in any subject. This way
your parents won't have to wait until report card time to
punish you.
Martin: How innovative. I like it!
Kearney: Hey Dolph, take a memo on your Newton: beat up Martin.
[Dolph writes "Beat up Martin" which the Newton translates as
"Eat up Martha"]
Bah! [throws Newton]
Martin: [being bonked on the head] Ow!
Now we have music, HD videos, fast internet with awesome sites, and wireless connectively pretty much anywhere. The Newton, in concept, was way ahead of its time.
Apple innovates and everyone else copies.
The Newton had several prototypes--larger, smaller, cheaper and in color when Newton, Inc. was spun off from Apple. Jobs came in after the spinoff, reversed it and gutted the engineering department. Most of those (the higher talented ones, anyway) left and went to Palm. I think a couple went to Microsoft.
The Newt was ahead of it's time, but so was the iPod and the iPhone. They essentially created their own markets. If Jobs had let Newton, Inc. fly on it's own, I believe we'd all have them now. They were a good five years ahead of Palm and the HWR on the 2100 was solid.
This was a case of Jobs killing the device out of spite.
I find it fascinating that some key Newton technologies such as the handwriting recognition was incorporated into OS X and is still there. It lay dormant until the Axiotron Modbook came along and it takes advantage of it. It is also there waiting for an Apple tablet when it comes along.
It has been noted many times that the iPhone and the iPod Touch are both reminiscent of the Newton and the tablet would extend the idea even further.
For the theory that spite is the reason the Newton was cancelled to hold water you would need to show that Apple discontinued the idea and that malice was the only viable reason for the product to be discontinued. The evidence, however is that the basics of the Newton idea is very much alive and continues to morph into products suitable for today's world and that sound financial restructuring meant that many products including the Newton had to be shelved.
A tablet is nothing like the newton, which was a PDA. AT BEST the Newton could be used to compare itself to the iPhone. Yes, they both have touch screens (ironically the iPhone has a touch screen too, who knew!?), but that is about the only similarity. Comparing a tablet to the newton is like comparing an apple to an orange...there's no basis to compare the two.
Regardless, the product will do fine and not flop like the newton simply because apple is apple and their fanbase is much larger than it was when the newton was released...not to mention the superior products they make.
Except for the fact that they're both fruit. I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMate_300
It even appeared in a Batman movie but a custom edition with cd-rom and color screen... look it up its' cool...
That being said, I don't think apple will go the netbook way (with keyboard) with their new product.
I bet they will have a way to connect your wireless apple keyboard through bluetooth once you're home and want to type up that school report or something...
Just my 2 cents.
:-D
The problem was that it was very difficult to share with a Mac. It came with about a pound of documentation. Two Newtons could 'beam' each other info, mostly contact info. The iPhone really is a Newton for the 21st century. I'm not sure how you could improve on the iPhone experience much: except to give it a larger screen, better speakers some kind of drawing/handwriting program.
Yep. Exactly. Well said.
BLOUZEFEST.com
Every day is sit for hours managing my life with my iPhone... I remember the foundation laid by my Newtons'
If I could whip one of these bad boys out and link to my iMac and attached hard drives to pull up a media file or document worth showing to a friend (iPhone is good but screen real estate is bad) or client instead of lugging out my PB (which has probably run out of battery) Then I would. Add a microphone/ear piece via 3.5 jack and it is a phone as well? Running Snow Leopard ! With WiFi! I'm sold already! No marketing required!
I have had a PDA with similiar features from Palm, I never got the hang of the writing "short cut" and writing on the screen with the skinny stylus...I even find typing on my ITouch with my finger/thumb much inferior to the midget keys found on my Black Berry Pearl.
- by josh_nippon August 14, 2009 9:38 AM PDT
- @TheStairMaster What you said!
- Like this Reply to this comment
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