Ad Archeology: Apple’s First Tablet, The Newton

10:51 am, January 26th, 2010, Nicole Martinelli

It’s retro-future time again at Cult of Mac. These ads, circa 1993, for the ill-starred PDA the Newton sound a lot like the all-singing, all dancing expectations of portable computing expected at tomorrow’s tablet announcement.

Some of the salient claims from the “Who is Newton?” ad:

“Newton talks to fax machines, laser printers to telephones (NB -- a landline) and computers!”

And remember, the Newton is for “All you mobile professionals who like cool stuff.”

While the “Where is Newton?” spot promised portability and connectivity on the go:

“Newton can get you from the urban jungle to the nearest hamlet…You can send a letter or a memo and faxes from places where there are no fax machine. Newton is everywhere and that’s not a bad place to be.”

And when the Newton did not live up to expectations — handwriting recognition being one of the big flaws in attempting to send faxes from outpost gas stations as per the ad — here’s what one crystal-ball gazing analyst told the New York Times in 1995:

“In the long run there is no doubt people will carry around small computers much like pagers today,” said Amy Wohl, president of Wohl Associates, a Narberth, Pa., consulting group. “But it’s still not clear that Apple will be one of the major providers of these systems.”

Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Apple Tablet, Cult of Mac, News | Comment on this article

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About the author

Nicole Martinelli was born in San Francisco and has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. Cultish tendencies and love for DIY increased while living on the Old Continent, where tech came late and cost more in Big Mac index terms. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. Since 1999, she's been tapping away at zoomata. You can also find her on Facebook, Linked in and Twitter.

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5 comments

Wonder what Amy Whol thinks now. At this point her doubt seems silly

shaunathan, on January 26th, 2010 at 11:44 am

Newton was the right product at the wrong time. While the concept was great, technology just couldn’t deliver on the promises made. I’m sure whatever Apple comes out with tomorrow will deliver…

Ictus75, on January 26th, 2010 at 12:29 pm

I completely agree with @ Ictus75’s comment. Defo the right product, the wrong time. Apple would have learned from the mistakes of the Newton, i.e handwriting recognition etc etc, and you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be pretty much no flaws in the tablet.

Does anybody know if the launch is going to be streamed on the internet?

Andrew Macdonald, on January 26th, 2010 at 1:58 pm

Wow. The Newton was awesome. Way ahead of its time. Pen input. Handwriting recognition. External keyboard.

It was one fringing smart machine!

fred, on January 26th, 2010 at 8:37 pm

Actually, Amy Wohl was right. For a long time, Palm dominated the PDA market.

shadoweaver, on March 18th, 2010 at 6:42 pm