Because Apple’s original logo (right) had a rendering of Isaac Newton sitting beneath an Apple tree, Sakoman decided to name the project Newton. The first thing he did was select a name for the project. Gassée got permission to start the project from Sculley (without telling him what was being researched), and Sakoman set to work. ![]() To keep the talented Sakoman from defecting, Gassée proposed creating a skunk works project to create an Apple handheld computer. ![]() The plan fell through, since it appeared that Apple would probably sue the nascent company. He wanted to leave Apple to work on handheld computers, and he recruited Jean Louis Gassée to lead a brand new company that would be bankrolled by Lotus founder, Mitch Kapor. He found the work uninteresting, however. When Jobs left Apple, these laptop plans were scrapped, and Sakoman helped lead the teams creating the Mac Plus, Mac SE, and Mac II. Steve Jobs hired Sakoman in 1984 to help work on a laptop version of the Macintosh after the successful release of the HP Portable. HP was uninterested in handwriting recognition, and Sakoman was assigned to help design the HP Portable (right), one of the earliest laptops. He hoped that eventually keyboards would be rendered obsolete and people would use touchscreens to interact with computers equipped with handwriting recognition software. While Sakoman was at HP, he worked with alternative input devices centered around different configurations of keypads. Steve Sakoman was especially cognizant of Apple’s dependence on the Macintosh. Sculley believed that such a device would be the next big thing in the computer industry, and he desperately wanted Apple to be the company to develop it. One video showed a college professor working with the device to effortlessly prepare a lecture while the computer created the graphics and simulated different models. The machine would anticipate your needs and act on them. Knowledge Navigator was going to be a tablet the size of an opened magazine, and it would have very sophisticated artificial intelligence. ![]() He commissioned two high budget video mockups of a product he called Knowledge Navigator (right). "The next thing you know, there were rumors everywhere," Collins said, adding that Newton-based products could yet have a bright future in the educational market.John Sculley, Apple’s CEO, had toyed with the idea of creating a Macintosh-killer in 1986. 'You have a technology that was finally going mainstream and gets good press, and then they kill it.' Robotics' PalmPilot, which was introduced in 1996.Ĭollins said he decided to go public with his offer after the news leaked and began spreading over the Internet. ![]() The Newton, which enjoyed popularity among a fiercely loyal user base, ultimately lost its lead in the PDA (personal digital assistant) market to U.S. The 60 or so people working on the Newton have been since transferred to other parts of Apple.Īnalysts have variously estimated the number of people using the Newton between 100,000 and 200,000. However, a spokeswoman said the company - which has not actively sought out a buyer - would consider doing so "if an attractive value is presented."Īt the end of February, Apple cut off further development of Newton-based products, putting a coda on a ballyhooed project that began in 1993. Should Apple sell the Newton? Add your comments below.Īpple ( AAPL) declined to discuss the matter in detail and would not confirm offers for the Newton.
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