March 25, 1993: Apple government Gaston Bastiaens bets a journalist that the eagerly anticipated Newton MessagePad will ship earlier than summer season ends. The prize? Bastiaens’ well-stocked private wine cellar, value hundreds of {dollars}.
The guess takes place on the CeBit commerce present in Hanover, Germany. Bastiaens’ outburst is available in response to a reporter’s needling. The gamble not solely offers the Newton a launch timetable, but in addition a worth goal: lower than $1,000.
Newton MessagePad: A quick historical past (and a wine cellar guess)
The Newton MessagePad was an ahead-of-its-time gadget. Apple launched a number of variations of the private digital assistant, which used a stylus for handwriting recognition. It gave customers a method to ship emails and faxes whereas on the go, and packages referred to as Names, Dates, To Dos and Notes allow them to handle their each day duties. In some ways, the MessagePad predicted the form of cellular gadget success Apple would later obtain with the iPhone.
Individuals each inside and outdoors the corporate typically regarded Apple’s PDA as then-CEO John Sculley‘s reply to Steve Jobs’ Mac. Nonetheless, the Newton was the brainchild of an Apple engineer named Steve Sakoman. Passionately devoted to handheld computing, he beforehand constructed the HP 110, the world’s first battery-powered moveable MS-DOS PC, whereas at Hewlett-Packard within the Nineteen Eighties.
The Apple PDA began out as a skunkworks undertaking in 1987. It continued as an R&D investigation till 1991, when Sculley noticed it. From this level on, the Newton undertaking pushed full pace forward.
Issues with handwriting recognition
By 1993, nevertheless, the Newton encountered issues. For one factor, the handwriting recognition software program didn’t work in addition to deliberate. The undertaking additionally skilled tragedy when programmer Ko Isono, who labored on the software program facet of the Newton, dedicated suicide in his house in Fremont, California. It was a dark time for all involved.
Nonetheless, the press remained desperate to know what Apple deliberate for its breakthrough gadget — therefore the wine cellar guess in Hanover.
Finally, the Newton launched in August 1993, simply earlier than the official finish of summer season. Whereas it later became a worthwhile product in its own right, the first-gen Newton proved disappointing and seemingly unfinished. Some folks prompt that Bastiaens rushed its launch as a result of he beloved his wine cellar a lot.
