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.

[chriscooksey]

ha now i want a Newton!

[DumbMacUser1]

Are people still using crApple products? Why? <br /> <br />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. <br /> <br />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.

[TheStairMaster]

@dumbmacuser1<br /><br />one: your a troll<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Five: your still a troll

[kevinbayarea]

@ DumbMacUser1<br /><br />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.

[fcz1]

Take a not on your Newton... Beat up Martin.<br /><br /><br />Eat up Martha.

[jpfalcone]

Nice Simpsons reference.

[jmakar169]

Eat up Martha!

[sjschaef]

Skinner: Children, the times they are a-becoming quite different. Test<br /> scores are at an all-time low, so I've come up with these<br /> academic alerts. [hold stack of cards] You will receive one as<br /> soon as your grades start to slip in any subject. This way<br /> your parents won't have to wait until report card time to<br /> punish you.<br /> Martin: How innovative. I like it!<br />Kearney: Hey Dolph, take a memo on your Newton: beat up Martin.<br /> [Dolph writes "Beat up Martin" which the Newton translates as<br /> "Eat up Martha"]<br /> Bah! [throws Newton]<br /> Martin: [being bonked on the head] Ow!

[johnnyrm420]

The times have definitely changed! Before 1998 we were working off of dial-up and the internet wasnt much of an experience. We didnt have WIFI ( I did but it was a rudimentary internet sharing system using 900mhz), we didnt have 3G, etc. The whole purpose of a PDA back in the day was primarily for tasks, to-do lists, etc. <br />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.

[regulator1956]

We had 256kbs in 1996, not the 20mbs FIOS I have today, but the small pages and light graphics made the pages fairly snappy.

[myles taylor]

I I agree with Johnny; times have definitely changed. Apple has the iPod/iPhone experience to back them up, a successful Mac OS, the touch screen and wireless technology, and many other things that could lead to this "Newton" being successful.

[Argyll]

This is Apple proving it was right back then, but just too far ahead of the tech to pull of it's dreams. Now the tech is here and Apple will be vindicated. Apple's vision is far reaching. <br /><br />Apple innovates and everyone else copies.

[bschmock]

Your crazy fanboyism makes me want to kill myself. Just stop.

[baconstang]

Go right ahead.

[KCL]

An Apple tablet device would *NEVER* be called a Newton. The Newton was John Sculley's project and Stevie has a long and vicious memory. I predict Apple will take great pains to make sure people do NOT associate this with the original Newton in any way.<br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />This was a case of Jobs killing the device out of spite.

[artistjoh]

Maybe a marketing genius makes business decisions out of spite or maybe he does things for sound business reasons. Apple was in trouble and had too large a product line. Steve Jobs pulled the company back to its core products and then set about revolutionizing it. I think he saw the Newton as having huge potential but the company couldn't do that right then but he also couldn't afford to have anyone else continue with a product that he knew would be important in time. Therefore canning it was a logical decision.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.

[idiotismm]

I really don't understand what is up with everyone comparing the newton to the unreleased apple tablet...<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.

[twitchin2021]

"Comparing a tablet to the newton is like comparing an apple to an orange...there's no basis to compare the two."<br /><br />Except for the fact that they're both fruit. I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.

[jbhatstl]

In my old age, my memory fails me, but the Newton wasn't the only thing produced back then. Someone had a small computer with a small, but functional keyboard and about a five line screen. Might have been Radio Shack. But, I remember that, for years after, sportswriters did their commentary on the games on those. I don't know whether you'd say it was a precursor to a laptop or a definition of what the Newton did wrong. I think something with a keyboard like the original Kindle would be well received. Pull out a flip up to put the thing at the right angle, give it a rubber edge, and see if the world doesn't grab on. Went to my Dr.'s office in a big hospital complex. They've just gone digital. Carrying around open laptops made them seem ridiculous.

[Renegade Knight]

HP had a computer like that. A PDA of sorts.

[jacknicholson]

There was actually a bigger newton, a netbook of sorts: <br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMate_300<br /><br />It even appeared in a Batman movie but a custom edition with cd-rom and color screen... look it up its' cool...<br /><br />That being said, I don't think apple will go the netbook way (with keyboard) with their new product.<br /><br />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...<br /><br />Just my 2 cents.

[mrwater]

Maybe for a name they could combine Newton, iPod and Apple and call it the Nipple. It would be more attractive than gravity. Most men would buy two.

[jture]

Very good! Bravo!

[inouyde]

Good one, mrwater

[artistjoh]

One of the biggest sources of problems in the world is that many men prefer more than 2 which is why they often end up with none. :-)

[esierra1]

Some women too.<br />:-D

[Mac User Too]

Actually, I did have two Newtons. They came in handy to send an receive faxes on the road. I could even send and receive via cell phone (the phone was almost as big as the Newton). The damn thing was built like a tank (and pretty much weighed as much too). It would fit in my back jeans pocket. The handwriting recognition system was very good - it learned as you corrected it. <br />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.

[JohnFredC]

&gt; except to give it a larger screen, better speakers some kind of drawing/handwriting program <br /> <br />Yep. Exactly. Well said.

[BLOUZEFSET]

Can't wait to smoke a Megan Fox Blunt and make this puppy into a HACKINTOSH!<br /><br />BLOUZEFEST.com

[mkgmkg3]

I forgot about how useful my Newton was. It died a ghastly death...too horrible and embarrassing to share. However, I must agree that a Newton was no where near a tablet PC. Though it may have been nearly as large as one, its functionality was nowhere near what one would expect from an actual tablet computer.

[Tim_Liao]

I owned a Newton way back in 1994 that cost $799, It was very exciting to have such a device. I also owned another device called the Magic Cap by a company called General Magic. I think the biggest change in the 15 years since these devices came out is that back then, these machines were really just high end tech toys for the business community; there was no relevance for these machines to be used by the general public. So the problem for John Sculley at the time of the Newton release was, was there big enough of a business market outside of Silicon Valley to want to adapt such a device. And I think the answer was what Apple eventually realized throughout the mid 90s for their entire product line, that there just wasn't a large enough market for what Apple was producing to generate revenue. What Steve Jobs realized upon his return to Apple was that the products Apple were working on, such as the Newton were to expensive and too far ahead of it's time to help Apple survive it's near term financial woes. He had no choice to can the Newton because what Hawkins and Dubinsky soon proved with the Palm Pilot was that for the technology to become adapted by the mainstream, they had to dumb down the appliance. For example, Newton's handwriting recognition was way ahead of it's time both in a positive and negative sense. The processing power was just not adequate enough to make the handwriting recognition work flawlessly, Hawkins and Dubinsky knew this when they came up with Palm Grafetti. They knew at the time there was just too many variables for the processors at that time to accurately recognize all handwriting without it frustrating the heck out of the user. Also at that time Dubinsky and Hawkins knew the best way to successfully sell a PDA as a effective communication device, there had to be a way for the information to be easily transmited off the device. Apple, again was impraticle and way ahead of its time by insisting consumers wanted to use the Apple modem accessory. What Palm understood was that, at the time in 1998 the best way to have your data trasnmitted was first transferring it on your PC or Mac. This is actually a problem, many Newton owners are dealing with today. Even if you still use your Newton, the question still arises - how the heck do you get the information off your Newton onto a PC, Mac, Network, or Internet?

[Tim_Liao]

One last thing that would have eventually doomed the Newton to failure today. A lesson Sony has had to learn the hard way with it's many failed attempts to launch a succesful MP3 player. Closed proprietary systems for storing information is a recipe for failure.

[Duane Kuss]

I owned every model of newton that was produced. The contact list that is on my present iPhone came off of the series of Newtons' I used. The product was fantastic... the market wasn't ready... the internet network wasn't mature enough, the cellular network wasn't old enough.<br /><br />Every day is sit for hours managing my life with my iPhone... I remember the foundation laid by my Newtons'

[pacificbro]

What do you guys think? Will Apple have a hard time selling a new Newton?<br /><br />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!

[waderx]

Or who was Newton?? Sir Isaac observed an Apple falling from a tree. I did not, necessarly hit him on his head. The Apple Newton was ahead of its time. <br />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.

[waderx]

Oops... It [the apple] did not necessarily hit him on the head... Excuse typo....

[josh_nippon]

@TheStairMaster What you said!