the future of the PDA: a neo-Newton?

[tstreete]

What with all the uncertainty about the future of the palm os these days, combined with all the fuss about smartphones vs. pure pdas, I got to thinking about the long term evolution of these devices. And this brought me back to the Newton. Can we look at the Newton to guess the future of pdas?
The Newton of course had its flaws; you don't need to list all the little problems it had to me, like price, bulk, poor syncing, etc. That's not the question. But the Newton was to the 1990s like the Xerox Alto/Star was to the 1970s: a commercial failure whose core ideas would eventually all triumph in other systems. In 1975, the Xerox Alto (an experimental but working computer system used at Xerox PARC) was a personal computer when everyone else was still using mainframes and minis, it had a mouse, a windowing interface, networking, etc. It would take about fifteen to twenty years before all these innovations were made commonplace via the mac and windows.
The original palm pilots have been called "the Newton 2.0." But like the mac, the palm only implemented a fraction of the original machine's ideas: PIM functions, instant-on, pen input, and an elegant simplicity of design. Some of today's pdas seem to be drifting towards Newton-like features: the Clie TH55's big screen, the PPCs cursive write-anywhere handwriting recognition, various efforts to deeply integrate functions, like Sony's Clie Organizer. But there are things about the Newton that have not (yet) become commonplace: the Newton did not have "files" but rather structured data that could be equally accessed by all apps; on the Newton, you wrote something, and then indicated whether to email, fax, or print it. No wordprocessing or "email" filetypes required. PDA interfaces seem to be getting more cluttered and desktop-like instead of more like the Newton's brilliantly simply and intuitive interface.
So, is there a neo-Newton (conceptually, that is, NOT something manufactured by Apple) in the future?

[zackepceo]

Conceptually, it is probably closest to the OQO in current times. Apple would be wise to release a good Palm OS 6.1 PDA now, considering the delicate falling act that Palmone has put the OS in.

[athlon64]

PalmOne really needs another manufacturer running Palm OS.

[LiteBuLB]

i see Palm OS at the end of the road. hell just look at T5. isnt it a dissapointement? what are they doin in their R&D? features that are essential are not there, features that are optional are there. Even with Cobalt, i dont think it would bring back its market share and lure users to switch over to palm, and even worse with the exit of Sony. seriously for me, i am sticking with palm because my device looks good and it performs.

but for now, who cares? I am just grabbing the last clie out there. LOL.

[tstreete]

Conceptually, it is probably closest to the OQO in current times. Apple would be wise to release a good Palm OS 6.1 PDA now, considering the delicate falling act that Palmone has put the OS in.

True on both counts, though I'm wondering if the real innovation at this point has to come at the level of file structure and user interface; one can squeeze a sophisticated OS into almost anything now -- but the Newton had features and elegance on a system with just a few megs of ram, features that don't exist anywhere today. I suppose it's too much of a risk to break from the pack and do anything radical in software; people spent so much energy learning word and windows that they're afraid to invest energy in anything else, even if it's better.

[Ezra4no1]

The Newton PDAs, were ahead of their time in every way. The original engineers and designers of Apple who conceptionally began the Newton had a vision about portable computing that even by today has been unmatched in the PDA community. Palm came close to grasping the idea of the Newton with PIM management and a small and simple design back in the day, but still was very differently than what the Newton could of been if Apple hadn't killed it's growth.

If Apple re-released the Newton today with current technology, I have no doubt that it would become a market leader in the PDA community.

[ydjk58]

Well, the way I see it, where's apple with the iPalm, to go with your iPods, it would have the simplistic looks of the iPod, Apple could put its touch on the Palm OS, and maybe even make a hard drive based Palm OS/iPod OS device. Think about the possibilties. The latest iPods have been able to play games, now they have color screens and are become more adapt as not only a portable music player, but a device with PDA-ish and PIM functions (i.e. your PALM contacts, notes, and stuff like that are now able to be put on the iPod) You would per say need to hot sync like current palm OS PDAs, you could mount it as a hard drive on you PC or Mac (like some do now) all you do is install the palm files to the right directories. Come on Apple, lets see this happen.

[Ezra4no1]

This would never - ever happen...

1, Apple doesn't like to play follow the leader. In other words, most everything Apple does they do to be the "trend setter" of technology.

Example.. the iPod, even though a HDD Mp3 player was out before the iPod, with Apples marketing a design it is the only one anyone remembers. There Designs of PC is another example. There move to eliminate the Floopy.. A good move, but still nice to have some other move-able media.

I think this is why Apple went with the Photo-iPod. A really dumb idea in my opinion but no one else had done it, so thus they become a market leader. Even though I think the Photo iPod would of been better if it played video/photos/ and Mp3s, the fact is there are already OEMs doing this and Microsoft partners and Apple would had to compete in this market.

I also think this is the reason why Apple pulled away from the PDA market this past year with the rumors and statments made from Jobs himself about deciding at the last minute not to release their PDA.

And 2nd.. Apple does better with products they OWN all the rights to right out. Apple would have to control the OS and since PalmSource does, this would never give Apple the flexability nor the financial greed to push Palm where they would want to go. Hence.. why Apple under Jobs will not license their OS to hardware vendors.

and Last, if Apple were to release an OS it would put the Palm OS to shame and make Windows Mobile look silly. Their PDAs would re-invent the PDA market as from this article:
http://www.macnet2.com/more.php?id=455_0_1_0

[spygrad2003]

I think this is why Apple went with the Photo-iPod. A really dumb idea in my opinion but no one else had done it, so thus they become a market leader. Even though I think the Photo iPod would of been better if it played video/photos/ and Mp3s, the fact is there are already OEMs doing this and Microsoft partners and Apple would had to compete in this market.



I myself am one of the biggest mac fans there are, and glad you recognize what they are doing, but just thought I'd correct this by saying that there were photo-mp3 players prior to the Photo-iPod. Although none of them had integration or as much ease-of-use as the Photo-iPod, there were some out there. I think one was by Sony. Just thought I'd point that out.