08-19-2002, 04:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,350
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iPhone: Apple working on a phone/PDA combo?
http://makeashorterlink.com/?V2A152E81
It's that time of year again, where rumors are spread that Apple is working on re-entering the handheld market. As to some a new Newton is similar to the Holy Grail, those people might rejoice. But if this New York Times article (source: BrightHand) is correct, the new device will not be Newton like. Last years rumored Apple PDA was the iWalk. This years rumor is called the iPhone. According to an article in the New York Times, Steve Jobs sees no future for the PDA, but he sees a future for phones having PDA capabilities.
"We decided that between now and next year, the P.D.A. is going to be subsumed by the telephone," he said last week in an interview. "We think the P.D.A. is going away." And even while protesting that the company had no plans to introduce such a device, he grudgingly acknowledged that combining some of Apple's industrial design and user-interface innovations would be a good idea in a device that performed both phone and computing functions."
First of all, I like the use of the word "decided". I think most of you will agree that phones with PDA capabilities will have a big future. But I don't see PDAs in itself go away. There might be a big move from disconnected PDAs to the new connected kind ( like the T-Mobile / O2 XDA / HP Jornada 928 WDA etc. ), but I feel there will always be a market where users would like a bigger screen and better input methods, but they would still want their device to be pocketable, and not luggable.
In the article some analysts are quoted, where they state that several features in the new Macintosh OS software would make more sense in a hand-held device than a desktop computer. "Of the 12 new OS X features the company has been emphasizing on its Web site, most would be desirable for a hand-held phone, including chat capabilities, mail, an address book, calendar features, automatic networking and a synchronization feature that will become available in September. And several of the features, including the company's handwriting-recognition technology and Sherlock information-retrieval program, would be much more relevant to a small, portable device than to a desktop computer. Sherlock in particular has been repositioned in a way that would make it a perfect counterpart for a portable phone. Its original purpose, which was finding files and content on the computer's local disk, has been transformed into a more general "find" utility program. Now, Sherlock is being extended to search for types of information like airline and movie schedules and restaurant locations. The software can display maps and driving directions."
Somehow I get the feeling that some people are so desperate to see Apple return in the PDA market, that they're labelling everything Apple does as a sure sign it's going to return. But is it a sign, or just a lost sandal?
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08-19-2002, 04:36 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 102
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Nice touch. Not everyone can find a link between Apple and Monty Python 
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08-19-2002, 04:59 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 381
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Come on, the Newton created the PDA market. Apple even coined the term PDA. It had a 160 MHz StrongARM processor in 1997. It had a resolution of 320x480 (ala Clie). It was expandable with either 1 or 2 PC Card slots (I am sure if the Newton still lived today, they would have made it smaller...). It's wordprocessor is STILL better than Pocket Word. There was so many things going for the newton, except size of course. It was just ahead of it's time.
Now iPone has been rumored before, ever since they registered the domain. I don't think Apple will create their own phone, I think it will be rebranded as Apple's own.
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08-19-2002, 05:12 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 390
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I would consider Apple a serious player if they decide to enter smartphone arena, even so than Palm.
Apple weakness is that they don't have connection with the phone industry, the same problem Microsoft has, but they know design and software.
Probably the phone industry will adopt Apple in theory that the enemy of my enemy is my friend line of thought to counter MS smartphone, who knows.
Symbian is certainly not going anywhere, too few application and doesn't connect very well with desktop.
One thing is certain after this news: Palm is dead. phone or no phone. (Handspring is more than dead now, it's only a matter of time they will get bought out.
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08-19-2002, 05:17 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 153
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Re: iPhone: Apple working on a phone/PDA combo?
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Originally Posted by Marlof Bregonje
First of all, I like the use of the word "decided".
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Yeah, I agree. It almost sounds like Jobs thinks he can will PDA's out of existence. However, if he had used the word determined, I'd almost agree (I say "almost" beacuse there are certain people I will never be able to agree with...Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, my father, etc. :? ).
Let's be honest, PDA's aren't mainstream now. They're common, but not mainstream. Amongst this forum, we all use them, but we're hardly representative of the public at large. Meanwhile I went out to dinner with a large group the other night and somebody wanted to call a missing guest but couldn't because he had forgotten his phone. As soon as he said that, the six people nearest him (probably all those who could hear him) all pulled out their phones, including a seventeen-year old just starting her senior year in high school. Of the seven of us, I was the only one who even owned a PDA, and I hadn't brought it with me!
It's much more likely in the public at large that phones will take on PDA functions than PDA's with phone functionality will begin to supplant phones. Maybe for a certain segment of the population (represented here), but not in the general public.
IMO, neither technology will disappear, but if I had to invest in phones or PDA's, my money would be in phones.
-Jim
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08-19-2002, 06:26 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 34
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I am not an Apple fan--very much the opposite in fact, but I do think that a cell phone by Apple could manage to be their savior. Their price hike won't show as much in the expensive cell hardware market, their incompatibility with other systems won't matter, and their design sensibilities will work well with the platform. They have to remember two things, though: first, they have to keep it small, instead of increasing the size with packed features, as most people to whom an Apple phone would appeal do not want to lug around a PDA; and second, they have to resist the temptation to sell extra pay-services with it, the way Jobs wants to do with .Mac.
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08-19-2002, 07:12 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 16
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As a long-time Newton owner and fan, I would like to see Apple return to the PDA market.. but it will never happen so long as Steve Jobs is at the helm. It was Jobs who killed the Newton as one of his first acts upon returning to the company he had once very nearly destroyed. It doesn't matter whether the company can produce a superior PDA OS, or whether the Newton handwriting recognition software is superior to those used in Palm and Microsoft PDAs (it is still, by the way), because for Jobs to go back and resurrect the corpse of Newton would be like admitting Jobs was wrong. Seeing as how the premise of existence is based upon the infallibility of Jobs, proving he was wrong would unmake Creation .. oh, sorry, that was "Dogma". Nevermind! :P
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08-19-2002, 07:32 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 37
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Quote:
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they have to resist the temptation to sell extra pay-services with it, the way Jobs wants to do with .Mac.
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Oh no, we wouldn't want anyone to charge actual money for providing services, now would we?
:roll:
JW
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08-19-2002, 07:47 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 725
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Madoc Owain
As a long-time Newton owner and fan, I would like to see Apple return to the PDA market.. but it will never happen so long as Steve Jobs is at the helm. It was Jobs who killed the Newton as one of his first acts upon returning to the company he had once very nearly destroyed. It doesn't matter whether the company can produce a superior PDA OS, or whether the Newton handwriting recognition software is superior to those used in Palm and Microsoft PDAs (it is still, by the way), because for Jobs to go back and resurrect the corpse of Newton would be like admitting Jobs was wrong. Seeing as how the premise of existence is based upon the infallibility of Jobs, proving he was wrong would unmake Creation .. oh, sorry, that was "Dogma". Nevermind! :P
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In my opinion this is exactly why he very well might enter the SmartPhone market. Jobs won't make a PDA because of some old grudge against John Sculley but he has shown that he does realize PDA functionality is important (iPod for example) and I think a smartphone would be the perfect cop out to allow him to re-enter the PDA market without re-entering the PDA Market.
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08-19-2002, 08:45 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,329
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I WANT MY NEWTON BACK!!! WAH!!!! :cry: :cry: :cry:
Dang you Jobs for killing my baby :twisted:
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