had long wanted to talk about today, so after the presentation on January 27, Apple iPad left me little reason to keep delaying it, so here you have this new pill computing history.
However, as I always say, to understand fully what is a specific event occurs and why it is necessary to put it in context, ie explain their background and situation in which it operates that fact.
And that is the case of Newton is a special case. Perhaps in that sense, is somewhat similar to the hype iPad produced and the enormous excitement generated, but we'll see if history repeats itself or not Apple's new toy. Now, let's focus on today's topic: the birth of the Apple Newton . Our story begins with an Apple engineer dissatisfaction with his work called Steve Sakom . If you follow this blog regularly you might sound as this name, for it appeared when we talk about GO, Corp and Microsoft tactics. Until 1987, Sakom had worked as a hardware engineer involved on projects for Apple, but I was tired of working on yet another redesign of the Macintosh and wanted some "excitement" in his life.
was more or less then those contacted Jerry Kaplan, the founder of GO Corp. and when he decided to leave Apple to design the hardware of the PDA GO. However, to advertise its low spoke with his boss, Jean-Louis Gassée , to explain the reasons for his retirement and his future projects. This, having listened attentively to talk about what I wanted to create GO, proposed to continue in Apple and start a new project that implement all these ideas under his leadership.
Gassée Jean-Louise (pictured) was the replacement for Steve Jobs at Apple as chief of new products even before Jobs himself leave Apple to found NeXT, so it was in his power to initiate new projects and negotiating . What Sakom wanted the project was small, with a limited number of engineers and bureaucracy added, something like what was the original Macintosh project started by Jeff Raskin . The idea was to create a new concept laptop, but completely different from what seen so far. Until 1987, laptop computers were rather slow, very large, very heavy (none fell of 6-7 kilos) and very limited autonomy. The Newton would also be relatively large (slightly larger than the new IPAD), with limited consumption and hence greater battery life and a way to interact with it entirely new, with a touchscreen and a stylus that could be used both as a mouse and, especially, to write on the screen itself and recognize that writing and prosecuted.
Therefore, the project, which is called Newton was not only a challenge at the hardware but also software. Was to create a new operating system, seeking new forms of interaction between man and machine as the Macintosh model did not fit completely to what accounted for Newton, and, above all, had to develop a handwriting recognition system that not only works but cupiese in what would be the device.
However, for 1989, the star of Jean-Louise Gassée Apple was fading and gradually his protege Newton project ceased to be so protected. As more and more funds were allocated to the project, the Apple device was interfering more in the daily life of the project, adding new red tape, reports, spreadsheets requirements and all that excites both an engineer.
Finally, Gassée was pressured to such an extent that he resigned, and he also presented Sakom. Thus, as with the Macintosh, the man who had started the project went through the back door. Together, they founded Sakom Gassée and Be, Inc. , whose name if you've been aware of these lines will ring you because they were mentioned in The return of Steve Jobs at Apple (1997) to be about to be bought Be, Apple Inc MacOS BeOS to replace (if not read, Gassée asked too much money thinking that Apple was desperate, what made Apple look for alternatives and end up buying NeXT and, therefore, allowing the return of Jobs to Apple) .
still in 1989, Bill Atkinson, the creative genius of the Lisa user interface and the Mac and possibly one of the best programmers in the world, prepared a meeting to discuss future projects and he invited a former senior engineers and engineers Apple and Steve Capps (pictured) and Andy Hertfelder and also attended by John Sculley, Apple's CEO. After hearing about the project Capps wonders of Newton, who had just left without a leader and was in danger of disappearing, it asked for a show to see what I did with him, as he himself claimed not to understand and before deciding he wanted to see for themselves eyes. When Sculley saw what was developing the Newton was delighted and decided to put all that were needed (funds, engineers, whatever) and set 1992 as deadline (ie, just over two years).
Sculley To understand why I was so excited about the Newton we must go back to 1987. Apple's success so far rested on two main products, each of them revolutionary in its time. First came the Apple II, the machine that made Wozniak and Apple in a heavyweight micro industry. Then came the Macintosh, with its graphical interface and charisma, the machine and the main Jobs Apple support in the late 80's.
Jobs and Woz was both visionary people who understand technology. Sculley envied them for that. Apple has never made so much money at his command, and Sculley was also winning awards and was admired as CEO of Apple. But despite its apparent success, he only was a top executive. It was a visionary. He had "his" machine. There was a pileup of Sculley, as it was the Apple II, Woz or Jobs Mac. In his autobiography Odyssey, spoke of the Knowledge Navigator like a futuristic device that can offer all times the information they need when they need it.
This vision, in fact, finished shaping it into a series of promotional videos. Everything shown in the videos was just science fiction, but Sculley symmetry between the Knowledge Navigator and Newton was clear, so that he thought he could go down in history not only as the great but as Apple CEO a visionary level Jobs and Wozniak. Here in this video the concept of what is Sculley's Knowledge Navigator .
However, the support of the Newton Sculley was grounded in a sense megalomaniac. We talk about the end of 1989, Windows 3.0 gave him little to hit the market, Apple had to reduce their prices and, therefore, profit margins, "so a new device to open a new line of business in a completely new market for which there is even competition was a blessing fall the sky.
So, back in 1990, Sculley took over the project Larry Tesler, an engineer came from Xerox PARC in 1980 and had worked so hard for Lisa to the Macintosh, and you can see in a more recent picture right here. Now that the Newton had a new leader, work began to take new directions. The project was divided into development three different devices. On the one hand, we had the Newton Plus, the darling of the "old guard" of Apple, consisting of a "pileup" of about 12 inches long by 9 high, an intermediate unit, of which I have not even found his name - 9 by 6 inches and had very little support, and finally a small device dubbed Pocket Newt 4.5 by 7 inches and was preferred by most young engineers of the project, also including Steve Capps. Tesler The idea was to develop all technology on Newton Newton Plus instead of focusing on lower-powered device, so that the Pocket Newt virtually became a project Underground within Apple have almost by Capps and two engineers (Tchao and Michael Culbert) almost alone and in secret while the rest of the company was turning to the Newton Plus.
As I said, the Newton was not only a challenge at the hardware level but also at the software meant that many important challenges led to new technologies. One of the most promising was a programming language, trying to combine the efficiency of C + + with the elegance and simplicity of Smalltalk. Such language, object-oriented course, intended as an open language with a powerful scavenger and especially able to be embedded in devices such as computers, digital phones or media players. Yes, something similar to what is Java, a few years before it. In this programming language was called Ralph, after Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man .
However, Newton was developing a processor designed specifically for Apple and AT & T which was particularly efficient compiled C code, but whose performance waned when it came to running the code Ralph. Therefore, Apple sought alternatives (despite having paid to AT & T a millionaire by the chip), finding the solution in a company called Cambridge ARM Ltd., of which Newton ride the ARM processor 610 and Apple also buy 43% of it by the sum of $ 2.5 million (in case anyone is curious, as Apple was talking to middle 90's in financial trouble has been selling shares of ownership of ARM to stay with a 0% of it). One of three engineers working on the Pocket Newt, Tchao, took a chance and contact Mike Markkula, chairman at the time Apple and one of the few who had been with the company since the beginnings in the garage Jobs. To Tchao, Newton Plus was an error. A device was too large, too expensive and too complex for to be completed in time.
The ploy worked and Tesler Sculley ordered to forget (at least for now) of Newton Plus and concentrate on completing the development on Pocket Newt, who became known from then Junior.
On January 7, 1992, Sculley spoke during his keynote of "digital convergence" of the computer industry, content and communications and the need for a new type of device as a digital assistants. It was then when he made the prediction that these new devices could go as far as sales of $ 3 trillion by the beginning of the XXI century (yes, no billion. Trillion). hype begins. That Sculley subsequently insisted that the money would be distributed stupidity throughout the industry and not the stay only Apple did not care. Everyone wanted a piece of the pie so damn great that Apple promised.
Finally, on May 29, Apple developed the first public appearance of Newton. It consisted of a closed-door pass several people chosen from the press, and although Newton was not yet finished (and, indeed, the first terminal is not even turned thirty submission was an emulation until Tchao got a second terminal operating) generated a huge buzz among the attendees, telling wonders their respective columns and articles about Apple's new wonder. It overlooked the errors seen, because ... Was not it a beta? It is normal that these things fail.
However, while the first presentation had been (relatively) well, the Newton was not yet ready. By the fall of that year, 1992, Calligrapher, the recognition program of writing, still not working well. In addition, the wonderful programming language designed for the project, Ralph, I needed more machine that Junior was able to afford to go fine, so we had to rewrite much of the language software C. is in this period when the pressures, marathon sessions of work, disappointments and more pressure could be one of the members of the project, Ko Isono, who ended his life on December 12, 1992 shooting with a pistol. Naturally and understandably, the morale of the project vanished along with the life of Isono.
Despite intensive work on Apple, June 3, Casio and Tandy took the honor of removing Apple's first PDA market with the launch of the Zoomer PDA. Apple announced a new date of departure, the August 2, 1993.
But the problems are piling up in Cupertino. In addition to delays in Newton, Sculley was becoming questioned, because the board felt that was too dump in the project (which had not provided even one $ to Apple and had spent money hand over fist) and because of that Apple lost for the first time in many years money in a quarter specifically $ 188.3 million (in fact, small change compared to what it would lose in 1996 and 1997). On June 18 the board relieved Sculley as CEO and put in place Michael Spindler (pictured), leaving Sculley as new Apple chairman. However, recent economic setbacks caused irrevocable Sculley submit his resignation as chairman and left for Apple always. Finally, during the Macworld Expo August 2, 1993, Newton was presented to society. The final model, called the Newton MessagePad , had dimensions of 4.5 by 7.25 inches, LCD touchscreen 240x366 pixel resolution, an ARM processor from 610 to 20 Mhz, 4 MB ROM and 640 Kbytes of RAM. The battery, four AAA batteries 6 volt, gave a range of approximately 14 hours. And all this in the amount of $ 699 in 1993.
The pregnancy had been long and difficult, but in the first few weeks there seemed to be worthwhile. Apple sold 50,000 units in its first 10 weeks. And, far from the 3 trillion predicted but a lot of Newtons in any case. However, as it did with the Macintosh in 1984, after the initial joy sales were declining, staying at around 7,500 units per month.
The reasons for this slowdown were evident. Handwriting recognition, when it worked, it was magical, but failed more than a gun fair. Just had third-party programs, and assume nearly $ 700 more an expensive gadget for wealthy executives that something truly useful to the masses, these were very professional.
At this time, Newton was stumbling from side to side. Gradually, they were out new models with better features and is particularly interesting recent models like the eMate 200 and MessagePad 300 (basically a redesigned 200 MessagePad Jonathan Eve).
By the way, do you remember Ralph? Well, when the project was nearly completed, Apple decided to change the name and call Dylan, short for Dynamic Language and, incidentally, a tribute to Bob Dylan, who did not feel particularly flattered and sued Apple for the use of her stage name on a product. Finally, in the fall of 1995, Apple canceled the project after making cuts to reduce expenses. When Gil Amelio took over as CEO of Apple on February 2, 1996 continued to cut projects, and although one of the leading candidates to disappear was the Newton Amelio decided to go with him. It was decided to create a separate company, which was to be called Newton, Inc, which is responsible for development and commercialization of Newton now, with new models (eMate 200 and MessagePad 300) at the end was still profitable. The idea of \u200b\u200bNewton Amelio was detached from selling to any other major company (Sun, Oracle, Ericsson, Samsung, Sony ...), and the easiest way was to pack it all in a company that could buy. Finally, after refusing all companies contacted to stay with "dead," he went on the Newton project, Inc.
However, they definitely constitute Newton, Inc. as an independent and autonomous Apple Gil Amelio was ousted by the board of Apple and Jobs took over in the power vacuum created by stopping the process of the new company with the promise of developing the concept of the eMate 300 (pictured). In fact, under the command of Jobs, Apple released on 20 October 1997, the MessagePad 2100, Newton latter would leave the market as the end of that year, Apple announced the cessation of platform development, and February 27, 1998 it was announced that any operation that had to do with the Newton was canceled. With this action, closed 11 years of development that Apple accounted for a $ 500 million. It is estimated that between 150,000 and 300,000 sold Newtons in the four and a half years were in the market. Maybe Apple, with the iPad, learned its lesson ... After
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