eMate - iPads true grandfather?

[iZac]

Newton -> eMate

iPhone -> iPad

I guess the concept was right, just the technology wasn't there yet.

At the same time ... Steve gave Microsoft $150 million in a desperate bid to keep Office on the Mac - keep them relevant in the productivity space.
Now their market cap is exceeding Microsoft.

This is Bizzaro world.

Discuss.

 

[DoFoT9]

was talking to my Machine Learning lecturer today about the Newton - he reckons it didnt take off because the handwriting recognition was very shotty. it was a great concept tho

 

[awmazz]

Discuss.

Other way around. Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple as a public committment to the 8 million Mac users who used Office. Had they pulled Office from the Mac platform it pretty much would have killed Apple as MS' only competitor and MS would have had to be broken up under antitrust laws, so it was a mutually beneficial deal. This was in 1997 with Mac OS 8/9. The deal also made Explorer the default browser on the Mac.

I personally think it was also a gentlemen's settlement as it marked the end of the long running legal disputes over Windows copying Mac OS as Apple dropped all claims.

The Newton was indeed the same concept as the iPad - the iPad TV commercial is exactly the same as the Newton's. Even the applications home screen is identical. But technology wasn't at the stage to make it the same user experience - basically batteries. A power-sapping colour screen to make content more viable as a user experience was only possible on the fledgling laptops with larger batteries. My Newton runs on 4 AA batteries!

Basically, this mobile computing revolution we're having now has been on hold for 20 years waiting for better batteries (thanks to the demand from the camera and phone market). I myself believe the iPad is what the Newton would have eventually become anyway, just skipped several generations. So maybe it would have been the Newton 6G or 8G or somesuch if they had kept going with it.

 

[darngooddesign]

Newton -> eMate
iPhone -> iPad

The emate was really just a Newton with an clamshell form factor. So the Newton is still the Ipad's predescessor.

 

[dacreativeguy]

I personally think it was also a gentlemen's settlement as it marked the end of the long running legal disputes over Windows copying Mac OS as Apple dropped all claims.

Actually, that was a $150M "Get out of Jail" card for Microsoft. If Apple folded, Microsoft would be even more of a monopoly than they were at the time and it would have been really tough to keep the government from demanding a breakup of MS. Although MS really didn't have a choice, they did end up creating a monster that may someday kill them.

 

[GadgetGeek71]

The great grandfather to the iPad:

 

[iZac]

The emate was really just a Newton with an clamshell form factor. So the Newton is still the Ipad's predescessor.

Thats the point, one could say the same about the iPad of the iPhone, same OS, different product. The eMate was a little cult success, people clamouring to get this "education" device because it looked so revolutionary (for the time) and by '97, the Newton OS had matured enough that well, it actually worked Just as the iPhone OS has matured also.

That's of course until Steve came back, had a hissy fit because it wasn't his 'vision' and nuked the thing!

Other way around. Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple...

Oh yes sorry i got a little muddled, didn't Steve offer $150 mil of his personal shares to MS which he took as a sweetener coming back to the iHelm of his sinking ship?

 

[darngooddesign]

Thats the point, one could say the same about the iPad of the iPhone, same OS, different product.

The Newton was released first and is therefore the grandfather of the iPad.

PS. Not that many people, with money, were clamoring to get the emate.

 

[awmazz]

Actually, that was a $150M "Get out of Jail" card for Microsoft. If Apple folded, Microsoft would be even more of a monopoly than they were at the time and it would have been really tough to keep the government from demanding a breakup of MS. Although MS really didn't have a choice, they did end up creating a monster that may someday kill them.

Yep, I actually mentioned that too.

Actually the monster creation worked the other way around too when Apple gave MS a helping hand and sidelined their own Appleworks to give baby Microsoft the field on the 80s Macs with Word/Office which eventually painted Apple into the corner in the first place to need that $150 million MS deal to not pull Office from the platform after the massive success of Windows.

Appleworks is back now as iWork and the natural order of things has been restored. It's been a good 30 year to and fro between Apple and MS.

 

[iZac]

The Newton was released first and is therefore the grandfather of the iPad.

PS. Not that many people, with money, were clamoring to get the emate.

Ah yes, I guess the Newton is the genesis of them all, no doubt. I just thought the iPad is an evolution of the iPhone like the eMate was an evolution of the Newton, if you catch my drift.

Well around my way I knew a couple of eMate users and it got envious press coverage in the UK, perhaps because it was "edu only" and because it was so wildly different in design. I applaud it for doing something totally different while Apple were floundering and in design approach it was a real trail blazer for the iMac.

The great grandfather to the iPad:

Incidentally I cant see a speak and spell without humming Moldover's - 'say it' anymore!