Much has been made of late about the possibility of Apple introducing their own brand of cellphone. There have been fierce arguments both for and against an “iPhone? , although most have been intellectual excursuses into whether or not it would be in Apple’s interest to release one, rather than what an Apple branded phone could do or could be. Most of the speculation of course, focuses on an iPod / Phone combination, the theory being that Apple needs to counter the onslaught of mp3 capable mobile phones from the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson. But while most of the rumours and guesswork are concentrating on the iPod side of the phone, everyone seems to have forgotten about the phone part. Or more importantly, what could Apple do for the cellphone that others so far haven’t ?
A long time ago, when questioned on whether or not Apple would release a PDA, Steve Jobs commented that the future was in Smart Phones. And history would seem to prove him right. Sony abandoned their Clié PDAs a long time ago in favour of their highly successful Sony Ericsson branded cell phones with similar abilities. Palm’s own Treo line has also been highly successful not to mention the ubiquitous blackberry. Almost all modern cellphones feature some form of organisation tools, features previously only found in PDA’s so it’s likely an Apple branded cellphone would probably feature similar capabilities.
So the question then is, If an Apple phone is to be a smart phone, what would apple use as it’s interface? Symbian? Possibly. Palm? Unlikely? Windows Mobile? Not a chance in hell.
If Apple wanted to truly rock the cellphone world they would have to develop their own interface. Such a feat would require considerable engineering, (which could explain why we haven’t seen one before now.) But Apple has one really big ace up it’s sleeve. It is sitting on some intellectual property that is widely considered to be one of the best PDA interfaces ever made. The Apple Newton. For a system that was discontinued years ago, the Newton still has a loyal following. Even more than that, handwriting recognition aside, it’s user interface was superb. It was so coveted that there have been numerous requests to resurrect the project, license, or even sell the technology, all of which Apple refused. It just sat in it’s electronic closet waiting to be called upon once again. It seems only logical that apple would tap the resources of the Newton for any future mobile type interface. Even though the code is too antiquated to use at this stage some of the concepts were brilliant.
Whether or not Apple uses any of the defunct Newton in a potential phone remains to be seen, but one way or another, if they do release a cellphone with even an inkling of PDA like features, it will be compared for better or worse, to the Apple Newton. Newton lovers have constantly decried their favourite device’s untimely demise. This may finally be their vindication.
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This is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN (i.e. use of the Newton OS in an Apple Phone). The reason is the same reason they didn’t sell the Newton OS – Apple no longer has the source code to it!
During the chaos of the closing of the Newton group at Apple, no one secured the assets of that group. No one was given orders to do so. The people who knew where the hard drives containing the various parts of the Newton platform all were laid off.
Jobs didn’t give the orders to secure it – and the hard drives were just lost.
They probably have some parts, but I have it on good authority that they are missing several key parts that they would have to have (or rebuild from scratch) in order to do anything with Newton.
So, my prediction is: NOT A CHANCE IN HELL.
Im not suggesting they use the newton code, just that they MIGHT base it the concepts of the Newton interface. As I said in the article, the code would be antiquated.