Re: [NTLK] [OT] New iPhones/iPhone OS 3.0

Hello,

--- On Mon, 6/15/09, Jon Glass <jonglass@usa.net> wrote:

> But remember, the Newton was a downsized, cheaper, less
> capable device than what Sculley originally envisioned. We've all seen
> the videos of that thing on the park bench, talking to its owner, etc.
> (Very "Hal"-esque, IMO). That was Sculley's PDA. There were
> multiple items that went into the OMP being called what it was called.

I agree that, because there was no set expectation on the part of the public at the time as to what a PDA was, Apple could define their product to be anything they wanted it to be and call it whatever name they chose to (even "ZippyPad," which, apparently, was one of the names in the running at one point). But I think it's revealing that the company that coined the term PDA and built anticipation over the concept during the course of eighteen months chose to call their first product something else.

The problem lay in that, with such a lack of expectation as to just what the new "PDA" was, exactly, and with the lengthy delay in production of the OMP, Apple's competitors could call their product whatever they felt like as well. And while they might not be able to throw the volume of money that Apple could at the product, (or attract the kind of talented people that sought to work for Apple) there was nothing to stop them releasing their own version of what they thought a PDA was: what was there to compare it to?

In a way, it's too bad that Sculley talked about what a PDA might be before the technology itself could keep up with the vision. I mean, while the vision drove the Newton team to deliver, there was only so much they could do given the constraints of the technology of the day.

I think this might be where Apple got their current reputation for secretiveness from: they learned the hard way from their experience with the Newton what can happen when your competitors get wind of what you're up to before you have a product in hand.

Best,

James Fraser

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Received on Tue Jun 16 04:47:35 2009