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The Next Big Thing
John Sculley is a man who in many eyes is responsible for the worst times at Apple by his removal of Steve Jobs from power and therefore stripping Apple of its only true visionary. His great wish while at Apple was to show he didn't just sell sugar water as he had at Pepsi and he wanted to prove his one and only technological idea to the world. When the Newton project began Sculley soon took it over as his own to create what he had called years before The Knowledge Navigator.
The concept was very straight forward. A handheld computer which could communication through a vast array of mediums and would do all the work for you, like an assistant that follows you around and all you have to do is say send John a memo - and there it is. The Newton captured this concept, best in its last revisions the 2x00 series of Message Pads. Through fax, email, infred beaming, AppleTalk networking, and printing the Newton Message Pad could get the information you wanted to almost anyone at any time, and beyond that its "Assist" feature allowed you to simply write "fax John" and it would lookup John's fax number in your address book - all you had to do was hit "Send."
Ever since Steve Jobs returned to Apple, shutting down the Newton division, and pledging to get on to the next big thing Mac users and Newton users have fainted at the thought of a new Apple branded PDA or even an Apple branded Palm device. Generally these people fall into one of two camps - those that want the Newton revived and those that want Apple to put their brand name on someone else's PDA. Here is why neither of these will be the case.
Apple will never launch a PDA of any kind that runs someone else's OS or an OS separate from what their primary computer line runs. There are many reasons for this, the top three are:
1) Newton OS vs Mac OS: The Newton was killed because it makes more sense for Apple to build a PDA based on Mac OS technology. This was one of the statements made by Jobs when the division was shutdown. Since the Newton was meant to be more a replacement for a person's computer and not an accessory like a Palm is this makes even more sense for it to have more in common OS wise with the desktop the company produces.
2) The single OS strategy: Apple does not consider itself as ever supporting two OSes [hence why Mac OS X is v.10 and not v.1.0]. This one can be debated as they still ship 9.2.1 on Macs but I think Apple's official line would be something to the effect of "9 is necessary for the backwards compatibility environment in Mac OS X." This goes along with the fact that Apple has stated many a time in the last few months that the Mac OS X train has left the station and developers better be on it. Apple sees Mac OS 9 as a dead relative, long respected the ashes still sit above the fireplace, but the urn isn't going to get up and do anything interesting any time soon.
3) Jobs builds the whole widget. Pretty self explanatory, we don't outsource, we don't license.
The last reason is probably the most powerful in terms of making the decision.
My take on an Apple PDA is that it will not be a PDA as we think of it today. The Newton is not what people think of when you say PDA, they think smaller, they think pocket calendar. They think it should fit in your coat pocket.
As a Newton user I have to say that I like the size. The Newton is more of a tablet PC as people think of them than a PDA. And I think Apple's next PDA venture will not be seen as a PDA venture at all. That's because PDAs as they exist today do not make a whole lot of sense.
Newton Message Pads were Message Pads-
With a Message Pad you take notes, ever seen someone take notes in graffiti on the 1.5" by 2" writing space on a Palm? Not the same thing. Can you do it? Yeah. Has someone, I am sure. But just because you can steer your car with your feet doesn't mean its a good idea - or a good experience. Newtons were more functional than Palms are even now. And that was four-five years ago. Generally the same goes for PocketPC and WindowsCE technology, but we will get there later.
Point of this is that while a Palm acts to keep your calendar and your address book, set alarms for your appointments, and maybe check your email it was not ever meant to do all the things that "PDA" was supposed to mean. My point? A Palm or Pocket PC is a date book, nothing more. And Apple is not interested in date books.
Functionality-
Newtons were meant to be low end laptops, you can travel with them and no other computer for several days and it will meet all your needs: fax, print, email,internet, word processing, spreadsheets, whatever, it was there. Now in one way this was what a PDA was supposed to be, and in another it wasn't.
You were supposed to take notes on it [HWR], and record conversations [2k/4k/5k sound in] for playback. Not only could you check email but you were able to comfortably compose email - not so cool on a Palm without a keyboard, and whether it be with a Palm, Pocket PC, or Newton you are better off without the keyboard, otherwise with all these accessories why didn't you bring a PowerBook?
This is not to make low of keyboard PDA use - I am sure you see where I am going - you should be able to do it all without the keyboard, whether you choose to will be up to the user.
Again here in terms of functionality the Palm formula loses.
When it comes to functionality Microsoft still believes that doing a little of everything is better than doing any of it particularly well. You can buy a HP PocketPC based PDA for a couple hundred dollars and it will have a color screen, 16MB of RAM, 133MHz processor, run the Windows inspired PocketPC OS, play MP3s, and it does have HWR.
But it falls short on most of these. While you can control how much of that 16MB of RAM is used for running the OS and how much is used for storing and running your software and user data PocketPC was not written to have a small resource foot print. It has a 133MHz processor and 16MB of RAM because it needs it, not as a bonus. The color LCD is back-lit on demand and has an average clarity and dpi, but battery life suffers dramatically. The PocketPC is not meant to be an on the road away from your Windows PC device. The Li-on battery is said to hold an 8 hour charge but that is not including MP3 playback, voice recording, or back-lite use, all of which dramatically lower that all ready short 8 hours.
The PocketPC interface is very little like the Newton or Palm OSes. Instead it is very much Windows, but Windows is not a GUI well adapted to a very small screen. For one pull down menus are simply hard to use and when it mixes pull down menus with Newton and Palm inspired sliding drawers and windows it is often counter-intuitive to use. This is mainly due to the dependence on Windows. While some users may see this as a strong show of integration between Windows PCs and PocketPC devices having a slimmed down version of Word on a PocketPC simply doesn't make sense from a user standpoint. Instead of adapting Windows' technologies Microsoft should be creating technologies that make sense for the platform - but as Microsoft sees both WindowsCE and PocketPC not as new platforms but as an extension of Windows.
Compared to a four year old Newton that takes standard PC card modems, ethernet card, and storage cards the proprietary nature of Palm and PocketPC accessories seems over bearing. The 8MB of RAM that a Message Pad 2100 offered in 1997 has only now become the standard amongst Palm devices. All of this goes to show one thing - Apple is ahead of its time.
Ahead of its time-
Apple products are normally ahead of their time.
The Macintosh - most people didn't move to a GUI on their computer until the early to mid 1990s. Windows 1.0-3.1 didn't move most PC users from DOS and if Scully would have been on the ball that would have been the best time to catch up. Like Jobs said once - when he left Apple they had a ten year jump on OS and interface design, well, what happened? They waited 17 years to do something more with it.
The MacTV - Set-top console boxes for TVs are still struggling but the idea of linking the TV and the computer was there long ago - and soon died - at Apple. Now we are looking at the age of the digital hub in computers ... hmm, you mean a computer that integrates my TV and sound system? Who woulda thunk it?
The Newton - Almost 9 years after its release and almost 5 years after it made good on its own ideals [only the 2x00 Message Pads fulfill the Newton PDA concept as it was announced to the public in 1992] PDAs are still not a real force in the market. The reason people say that "everyone who wants one has one" is because the people that don't want one haven't seen one that does what they want or need yet - so why buy one? Apple prides itself on determining what people want before people know they want it - that is a trend setter.
The Cube - In an age where most PCs bought are emachine types: small, compact, not very upgradable, often use proprietary RAM cards, built in hard to open cases, and sold very cheap America is simply confused. Everyone wants an expandable/upgradable computer but the majority of the market does little to no upgrading. This would make you think a small, well designed, moderately expandable, pleasant to look at, quiet computer would do well right? So goes the world eh? Maybe when people figure out that what they need in expandability and what they think they need, not to mention what they are actually buying in a cheap PC are all very different things a cube inspired PC would do well.
So here we are, the market takes 5-10 years to catchup on the standard Apple product and what happens? I'll tell you what happens. Apple releases its first safe product, the iPod. Its better than every MP3 player there is in numerous ways. It really is top of the line, but its safe. Its a not a risky change in design or form or even functionality. It just does what everyone else does better, longer battery life, dead quiet operation, large storage, auto-syncing, fastest importing of any MP3 device. Makes my trend setting argument against an Apple Palm type PDA sound counter-intuitive.
But I don't think it is. Better than the rest is the name of the game at Apple. Whether it be a GUI, a computer, a laptop, or an MP3 player Apple believes in standing out because of how good it is. And when it comes to PDAs I think Apple is waiting until they are able to do it right. That means all of the functionality that Newton users are zealots about and Palm users claim they don't need, with few to none of the draw backs of either.
In a way this will be a tie-in to Macintosh. Just as Microsoft wants a PocketPC to tie us to the desktop Windows PC Apple will want their new PDA-like device to somehow link us to our Macintosh. But will we see a Mac OS X dock on an Apple PDA? Unlikely, Apple makes pretty products but it also makes functional products, products where plug and play really means plug it in and it works, not plug it in and spend 15 to 20 minutes updating drivers and going through setup screens as it does on Windows. And since Jobs has returned we have not seen products crippled to fit a product spec. The iBook subnotebook that was redesigned last May allows for all the functionality of a desktop in a laptop under five pounds. Previous attempts, like the PowerBook 2400 and competing Sony Vaio notebooks, were crippled as it was necessary to remove ports, modems, and media drives to meet the size and weight of a subnotebook. Apple can be depended on to offer a completely new idea to what the PDA is today.
What will it be? eh ... might be the size of a small paper back novel - the kind that fits in your back pocket - with 10GB hard drive, RISC processor, UNIX based OS, integrated wireless, FireWire and USB, great handwriting recognition, it might be able to control every electronic device in your house from lights to your stereo, it might be anything ... but when Apple does it there will be one thing it is sure to be that no one else can make it.
It will be the next big thing.
| Discussions? --- Interact with the writers and other readers... |
| Re: Apple PDA | |
| Apple PDA | ---------- |
| Next big thing will be handheld device but won't be called a PDA | unpapier |
| battery supplier | mike |
| what can i get for a anewton | |
| Re: Apple Nintendo Partnership to be Revealed | Timmah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Re: G4 prices? | Richard |
| Re: G4 prices? | Mark |
| G4 prices? | DBR |
| Re: Apple Nintendo Partnership to be Revealed | |
| Re: Next Revolutionary Product (jan 7) | give us a tablet |
| Home automation - surely a no no | Roger Coleman (again) |
| It'll be safer than a PDA | Roger Coleman |
| Re: Next Revolutionary Product (iPhone) | Marco Mailand |
| Next Revolutionary Product (jan 7) | graeme lowry |
| Re: Wrong! | Jon Amido |
| Wrong! | Bill |
| Household Digi Pad... | Stephen |
| Re: What? | Gerk |
| What? | Norm |
| Apple Nintendo Partnership to be Revealed | P McCloskey |
| Re: "Next Thing" | Mark |
| Re: "Next Thing" | Terry |
| "Next Thing" | Travis Grundke |