Rumor: Newton Redux

Graybeards rejoice! At AppleInsider, the other Jade is mongering one of the top ten Apple rumors of all time: the return of the Newton. Stringing together an impromptu comment by Jobs at D: All Things Digital about products Apple was better off not shipping, along with the usual "trusted" sources (like the ones that predicted the demise of the Mac mini?), we now learn the Newton is not only back, but that it never left. It turns out that a PDA device has been in ongoing development for at least 18 months. What will it look like? A giant iPhone.

Externally, the mutil-touch PDA has been described by sources as an ultra-thin "slate" akin to the iPhone, about 1.5 times the size and sporting an approximate 720x480 high-resolution display that comprises almost the entire surface of the unit. The device is further believed to leverage multi-touch concepts which have yet to gain widespread adoption in Apple's existing multi-touch products -- the iPhone and iPod touch -- like drag-and-drop and copy-and-paste.

It's hard to know where to even begin in debunking this rumor.

Let's start with the raging inferno that is not the Ultra-Mobile PC market. Introduced with the infinitely cooler Origami moniker in 2006, the original slate design failed spectacularly, with high price and low battery life complementing a user interface that was ill-conceived for personal computing. Since then, Microsoft has sought to create specifications reflecting what human beings might actually use, and companies like Asus will soon have UMPCs that are fully functional, if stupidly named. The rumored Newton is not going to compete with the Eee PC, which leaves the iPhone as the competition.

How about the idea that Apple would hold back the ability to copy and paste from the iPhone until it can release it, or some other advanced "concept," in a PDA sometime in 2008? That's nonsense, but assuming the rumored Newton is more of an iPhone Pro, how will it be different? An iPhone Pro will be 1.5 times larger than the iPhone, so it will be a tighter fit in the pocket, and it will probably be 1.5 times as expensive, so it will be a tighter fit for the budget. But what will it do that the iPhone can't? The answer is nothing. Honestly, only the zombie company that is Palm sees a future for the PDA. Surely, the company that "reinvented the phone" sees that future as a dead end.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/09/26/rumor-newton-redux