Apple Computer Inc has abandoned its Newton operating system and Newton-OS based products such as the MessagePad 2100 and the e- Mate 300. Apple says the move is in line with its plan to channel all of its software development resources into extending the Macintosh OS. Newton has had a strange history with Apple starting with last May’s announcement that the Newton unit would be spun-out into an independent company to allow the successful products to develop outside of the dismal fiscal environment at Apple (CI No 3,167) – with part of the idea being that the Newton OS would be licensed to third parties. Newton Inc seemed to exist – albeit very quietly – on its own for some months until interim chief executive Steve Jobs decided the Newton products and underlying technology were strategic to Apple and folded it back into the company amid promises of renewed funding (CI No 3,242). Now just nine months after the aborted spin-out, Newton is effectively dead. Apple has been narrowing its focus for some months now, and says the Newton technology simply wasn’t profitable enough to continue developing. The unit was also hurt by the success of Microsoft Corp’s Windows CE OS and a wave of employee defections from Newton to 3Com Corp’s PalmComputing division. Going forward, Apple insists it’s still committed to the mobile computing market and says it will serve the market with Mac OS-based products beginning next year. Some of the Newton staff has been reassigned to Apple’s portable products division and will work on new hardware offerings there. The decision also leaves Apple free to produce handheld and other portable computers based on CE. For now, the company will continue to market and sell its current inventory of MessagePads and e-Mates and provide service to current users. Apple says it doesn’t expect to take any charges related to the abandonment of Newton.
