a counterpoint

Subject: re: March 4th Macs Only
From: Jeff Fabijanic
To: bill@macsonly.com

You wrote:

>Continuing to lose money on a product line and increasing the
>losses by chasing market share with reduced prices isn't consistent
>with viability unless a real moneymaker for that market is in the
>wings.

A continuing canard that begs correction -
According to most close industry watchers, Apple *netted* about $30-40M
from the Newton platform last year. They sold about 200K Newts (about the
same total number as WinCE machines, btw, which were "supposed" to hit 3/4
M units last year but barely managed a third of that). Given the *margins*
of $200-400 per unit, you can see that Newton made back it's dev costs and
then some. Sandy Benett's statements while interim CEO of Newton Inc.
confirm these numbers - as an independent company, Sandy went on record
saying he expected to see the company to be profitable within the first
calendar year, even taking into account startup and moving costs.

Most high-guard developers that I know believe that Steve Jobs pulled
Newton Inc. back for just this reason - he saw the opportunity to gut the
Newton Systems Group and apply the $$$ to his short-term bottom line.
That's selling the seed corn and it's always a foolish mistake. The
engineers and technical support people who were part of the NSG are not,
despite Apple spin to the contrary, working on other Apple projects -
almost all the truly gifted ones are gone - many to either WebTV or Palm.
Believe me, they let the Newton development community know exactly where
they were going when they left.

I love Apple tech, but I don't feel the need to blind myself when Apple
management makes poor decisions. Steve's been cutting the fat, but he's
also been cutting some flesh too. Axing Newton was as big a mistake, I
believe, as deciding not to license the Mac OS in the early 80s.

The Apple was revolutionary, the Mac was revolutionary. The Newton could
have been revolutionary, but Apple lost its nerve. I love Rhapsody (we're
also Rhapsody developers) but it's not revolutionary, its just extremely
well-built. The Newton was both - solidly and elegantly designed and
amazingly empowering.

Even your own encounter with a 1xx owner bears this out - using 2 year old
technology at best, he was still using the Newt instead of the fancy laptop
several times an hour. I don't use a laptop at all anymore - my 2100 does
*everything* I ever needed the laptop for and does it quicker and cleaner.
I read email, news, books (or have the Newt read them aloud to me while I
drive). I use a terminal app or my web browser to monitor and maintain the
remote servers I am responsible for. I've taken megabytes of notes and
diagrams during mtgs and seminars, without disturbing those around me. I
download color Powerpoint presentations to the Newt and use a PC card VGA
adapter to present them with real time annotations, while standing at the
front of the room. And when I want to relax, I have megs of games to choose
from or I can sit outside and sketch on my MessagePad, which I do quite a
lot now that spring is slowing returning to New England.

Sincerely,

Jeff Fabijanic


*     Jeffrey Fabijanic, Primordial Software          *
*           Boston, MA  (617) 983-1369                *
* This email was sent from a Newton MessagePad 2100   *
* using GoFetch mail sw and a Wyndmail wireless modem *

[Back to top of page]

Copyright © 1998 by Bill Fox.
All rights reserved--no commercial use permitted without attribution.

Of course . . . . . . and I am proud to be an Evangelista! . . .