March 25, 1993: Apple government Gaston Bastiaens bets a journalist that the eagerly anticipated Newton MessagePad will ship earlier than summer season ends. The prize? Bastiaens’ well-stocked private wine cellar, price 1000’s of {dollars}.
The wager takes place on the CeBit commerce present in Hanover, Germany. Bastiaens’ outburst is available in response to a reporter’s needling. The gamble not solely offers the Newton a launch timetable, but in addition a worth goal: lower than $1,000.
Newton MessagePad: A quick historical past
The Newton MessagePad was an ahead-of-its-time gadget. In some ways, it predicted the type of cellular gadget success Apple would later obtain with the iPhone. People each inside and out of doors the corporate typically regarded Apple’s PDA as then-CEO John Sculley‘s answer to Steve Jobs’ Mac.
The Newton was the brainchild of an Apple engineer named Steve Sakoman. Passionately devoted to handheld computing, he beforehand constructed the HP 110, the world’s first battery-powered moveable MS-DOS PC, whereas at Hewlett-Packard within the Nineteen Eighties.
The Apple PDA began out as a skunkworks undertaking in 1987. It continued as an R&D investigation till 1991, when Sculley noticed it. From this level on, the Newton undertaking pushed full pace forward.
Problems with handwriting recognition
By 1993, nonetheless, the Newton encountered issues. For one factor, the handwriting recognition software program didn’t work in addition to deliberate. The undertaking additionally skilled tragedy when programmer Ko Isono, who labored on the software program aspect of the Newton, dedicated suicide in his house in Fremont, California. It was a darkish time for all concerned.
Nonetheless, the press remained desirous to know what Apple deliberate for its breakthrough gadget — therefore the wager in Hanover.
Ultimately, the Newton launched in August 1993, simply earlier than the official finish of summer season. While it later grew to become a worthwhile product in its personal proper, the first-gen Newton proved disappointing and seemingly unfinished. Some folks urged that Bastiaens rushed its launch as a result of he liked his wine cellar a lot.
