Your first pocket computer Apple created long before there were iPhone и iPad. Development of a pocket computer began in 1987. The first Newton went on sale in 1993. It was a fundamentally new phenomenon in the market and the then CEO of Apple - John Sculley (John Sculley), even came up with a special name for it. This is how the term PDA – Personal Digital Assistant – was born.
By the way, the official name of the device was MessagePad. newton is just the name of the operating system. But as a result, users began to call "Newton" both the device itself and the OS for it. And so it went down in history.
Produced MessagePad until 1998. During this time, several different models were presented, and the division for their development and production was even separated into a separate company. newton. It was later liquidated as unprofitable by Gil Amelio, who cleared the way for Jobs.
The main reason for the failure newton on the market, it is usually called too high a cost, which for some models reached 1000 US dollars. However, a significant role here was played by the fact that the company simply failed to “explain” to potential buyers why this device is needed at all. By that time, the company entered the market Palm with their miniature Palm Pilot, which quickly gained popularity - they turned out to be much more convenient to work and carry, and their OS was more stable, although not as functional. However, compare Palm Pilot и newton not entirely correct: the first one was just an advanced organizer, while the second one is much closer to computers. But, as a result, "Ladoshki" from Palm turned out to be much more understandable for a simple consumer.
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| MessagePad 130 vs Us Robotics Palm Pilot 5000 The last one is the same size as the screen of the first one. However, Palm's screen resolution is 160x160 pixels. MessagePad has 240x320 pixels |
newton simply ahead of its time - neither the market, nor consumers, nor the company itself were ready for the appearance of such devices. Too large sizes, which are often cited as one of the reasons for the failure, could not become a serious obstacle. And the current popularity is quite massive iPad this confirms. In those years, there was neither the necessary infrastructure nor widespread access to the Internet. Useful content in the form of e-books, MP3 files and videos was absent by definition. newton was a good working tool, but with very limited capabilities. All this made the purchase unreasonably expensive and meaningless. And as a simple notebook Palm Pilot fit more.
Project closure newton upset fans of the company, who then repeatedly fell asleep Apple requests to create something similar. For a long time, the "Yabloko" protested, and then presented iPhone, turning the next page in the history of portable computers.
