March 24, 1997: The Newton MessagePad 2000 brings main upgrades to Apple’s PDA line, together with a much better show and a a lot sooner processor.
One of the best MessagePad but by a large margin, it shortly turns into a vital and industrial success. But it surely received’t be sufficient to save lots of the doomed product line.
Newton MessagePad 2000: Larger and sooner
A lot because the iPhone X brought an OLED screen for the primary time, the MessagePad 2000 launched a significant improve to the Newton show. In fact, in 1997 that didn’t imply the arrival of ultra-sharp OLED. As a substitute, the Newton merely gained a higher-resolution display screen (480 by 320 pixels, in comparison with the earlier mannequin’s 320 by 240).
As well as, the display screen grew by 20%, measuring 4.9 inches by 3.3 inches, yielding a 100 dpi show. Whereas not colour, the MessagePad 2000 for the primary time supplied 16-level grayscale pixels reasonably than the straightforward black-and-white two-tone of the PDA’s predecessors.
The processor acquired a significant improve as effectively. A 160 MHz StrongARM 110 CPU made this mannequin many instances sooner than earlier Newtons whereas utilizing simply one-quarter the facility. This meant the MessagePad 2000 may ship greater than 24 hours of steady battery life.
On high of this, the upgraded Apple PDA packed neat options like dual-mode IrDA-beaming capabilities, which allowed Newton customers to wirelessly trade info with each other. And naturally the Newton’s stylus-based handwriting recognition.
Newton MessagePad 2000 software program
So far as software program went, the MessagePad 2000 got here bundled with a calendar app referred to as Dates, a to-do record app referred to as Notepad, a contact supervisor referred to as Names, in addition to the EnRoute i-NET e mail shopper, NetHopper internet browser, Newton Works word processor and extra. For an additional $50, you would purchase a spreadsheet app.
Questioning how the MessagePad 2000 acquired on-line for e mail and web entry? This may very well be achieved by connecting a modem into one of many PDA’s pair of PC Card slots.
MessagePad 2000: Apple’s Newton shouldn’t be such a failure anymore
Photograph: Computers.popcorn
As I’ve famous earlier than in “Right this moment in Apple historical past,” the Newton MessagePad is criminally underrated as a product line. Folks often write it off as a failure — fairly unfairly.
In truth, the MessagePad 2000 confirmed that the Newton was really coming into its personal.
The Newton had been greater than usable since at the very least 1995, when the Newton MessagePad 120 launched in the US. Round that point, Apple additionally launched the vastly superior NewtonOS 2.0, which solved lots of the issues with handwriting recognition that plagued earlier fashions.
With its large enhance in energy and superior show, the MessagePad 2000 was the perfect Newton but. It proved extremely widespread with prospects. And that lastly laid to relaxation the notion that the Newton was a industrial bomb.
“The gross sales we’ve achieved in our first 30 days and buyer response validate our declare that the MessagePad 2000 is a compelling enterprise machine,” Sandy Bennett, vice chairman of the Newton Programs Group at Apple, said in a press release quickly after the product’s launch. “Our bookings charges are working 5 instances as excessive as they had been a 12 months in the past.”
Prefiguring the later recognition of the iPod with non-Mac customers, an estimated 60% of MessagePad prospects used Home windows computer systems. For true believers in Cupertino, it supplied proof optimistic {that a} cellular revolution was really underway.
In truth, Apple thought of the MessagePad 2000 so profitable that the corporate spun out the machine as a separate startup called Newton Inc.
That is (virtually) the tip, lovely pal
Sadly, the Newton turned one of many casualties of Steve Jobs’ return to Apple in 1997. On condition that he wanted to chop prices, and that refocusing on the Mac resulted within the massively profitable iMac G3 and iBook, it’s onerous to say killing the Newton was the flawed resolution. Nonetheless, it appeared a disgrace at a time when the MessagePad had lastly confirmed itself.
Apple launched only one extra machine within the sequence, November 1997’s MessagePad 2100. Jobs canceled the product line early the next 12 months.
The concept of making a really nice cellular machine didn’t go away, after all. Right this moment, the Newton’s legacy is the iPhone, which makes up the overwhelming bulk of Apple’s income.
Did you personal a Newton MessagePad 2000? Depart your feedback beneath.
