Present-day PDAs and mobiles also still feature many of Newton's additional applications, all of which were accessed through Newton's GUI, such as an In Box, Out Box, Clock, Calculator and find facility.
The MessagePad's Newton GUI
Of course, all this information meant Apple needed to develop a way for the MessagePad to store data, and this came in the form of Newton "soups" - freeform databases that could be accessed by all of the MessagePad's applications. Each application had its own soup, but each soup was also accessible by other applications, meaning notes, memos, the address book, etc could all cross-reference data stored in other soups.
While the soup structure was undoubtedly a sophisticated method of storing information, it ultimately meant that those using the MessagePad as a compliment to a PC weren't able to synchronise data between the two, because each used different data storage structures.
Apple did ensure though that the MessagePad had an edge over rivals in its ability to allow users to connect. All models featured infrared and had a PCMCIA slot to allow Flash cards, and wireless adaptors to be added.
Battery life was always a mood point on most models though. The three AAA-powered MessagePad and MessagePad 100 could manage 14 hours' runtime. The upgraded MessagePads 110 and 130 used four AA batteries - not good for the device's size and weight, but did give the MessagePad around 24 hours of use.
All the MessagePad models were significantly larger than PDAs on the market today. The original MessagePad was 18.4 x 11.3 and 1.9cm and weighed 408g. The second-gen design of the MessagePad 110 upped the weight to 581g and the size to 20 x 10 x 3.1cm.
Apple's last MessagePad, the 2100
The MessagePad 2100 was larger and bulkier still, measuring 27.5cm x 11.9 x 2.1cm, while weighing 640g.
For most of the MessagePad's life, Apple sought to market it as a device that could reinvent the computing methods of the time. This ultimately proved an impossible task, and Apple attempted to reposition the device more as a mobile adjunct to a Mac - something the Palm Pilot was successfully doing in the PC world.
Apple's awakening came too late, and combined with Newton's poor handwriting recognition, the high cost and the MessagePad's large size, the death knell of the first PDA was sounded in February 1998.
More Forgotten Tech...
• 15 years ago: the first mass-produced GSM phone
• Compact Disc: 25 years old today
• From 1981: the World's first UMPC
• The IBM ThinkPad: 15 years old today
• Atari's Portfolio: the world's first palmtop
• 'Timna' - Intel's first system-on-a-chip
• BeOS: the Mac OS X might-have-been
• Sony's first Mylo
COMMENTS
Still using my 2100
And I will continue to use it until someone comes out with a PDA that can match it in usefulness.
Successful Innovation requires as many as possible new forms
Successful innovation needs as many as possible new forms of a device to come to the fore, as often as possible. The Japanese have an inbuilt advantage with innovation, their reluctance to let any single idea or form of a product sit for very long in the manufacturing stage.
The faster you let new thinking make an input and the smaller your manufacturing run, the better you can meet market perceptions with new variations of the same product.
We saw the opposite here in the UK with a fixation on trying to get the maximum length of product run for the minimum product development cost. By the time the business can see that the market is fed up with the currect product, it is too late. Some other innovator has stolen your market from right under your nose. Ergo, we lost cameras, pocket calculators, you name it.
Never try and control your market by any other means than fresh innovation of the product and always test your market by constantly revising the product to suite new perceptions.
Don't forget the eMate
There was a weird Newton-based machine built that's eerily similar to the OLPC: the Newton eMate. It had a keyboard and a little LCD, ran Newton OS, and was cool.
Title
"those using the MessagePad as a compliment to a PC"
As in "hi, PC, you're looking great today!", is it? :O)
J
Yes, there were PDAs before Newton, alright . . .
@Ben
Yes, there were. I know -- I still have a couple of the ones I had stuffed in a drawer somewhere. I do also have my MP2000 which I use everyday in my business and a brand new 2100 waiting in the wings for the 2000 to die. I'm not sure if you actually used some of these early PDAs by Sharpe and Casio, but the ones I started with and ditched were unbelievably awful. The Psion was closer to acceptable, but in the end it was really a scaled down laptop, much akin to the Windows CE efforts, albeit much better than WinCE.
The Newton, on the other hand was an integrated device that was created with pen computing in mind at every turn. A real treat to use (as I still do). It's funny to think how those awful early PDA interfaces drove the folks at Apple to come up with something more intuitive -- that is the same drive behind the iPhone. Boom? or Bust? Only time will tell -- meanwhile -- everyday my MP2000 soldiers on!
