@coreint @danielpunkass @manton I wonder if a good comparison for Newton would be the Palm? Quick search says PalmPilot sold 1 million in the first 18 months. And I’m not sure if that’s one model or just the first generation. But it’s still 5x your Newton number. I think those 20% are not bad compared to Mac market share of the time? Unless there are lots of other PDAs I forgot.
@uliwitness @coreint @manton Yeah, Palm totally nailed it by compromising with "Graffiti" or whatever they called their writing shorthand. Small learning curve but it was reliable!
@danielpunkass @uliwitness Palm was much cheaper, less ambitious. If anything, maybe it was the Meta Quest to Apple's Vision Pro, although that doesn't totally fit either. I still think the Newton could've been successful if Steve hadn't likely held a grudge because it wasn't his product.
@manton @danielpunkass @uliwitness we watched Newton, Palm, PocketPC back then waiting for a platform that could handle mobile weather radar visualization. iPhone was exciting because it was a “real” OS with a full C/C++ stdlib and runtime.
@jmwolf @danielpunkass @uliwitness iPhone was a breakthrough for sure. I do wonder what would've happened if Newton had more time to evolve... It was nearly 10 years later when the iPhone was announced.
@manton @jmwolf @danielpunkass @uliwitness newton was ~ 15 years older tech, and as cool as it was it was just too much of a G.D. brick to carry around VS. the Palm which was a deck of cards / pack of cigs.
A PDA must first be ever-present before it can be useful
@Sci_Phi @manton @danielpunkass @uliwitness IMO, Newton would’ve needed to evolve into iOS to achieve more than a niche market as a Franklin Day Planner replacement.
@Archimage I still have mine too but haven't used it in years. Apple got a lot right with the system… Too bad it didn't last to see a thinner, lighter, faster version.
