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September 18, 2002
Could have saved the Newton
FileMaker Mobile 2.1 Previews on Stage at DEMOmobile 2002
FileMaker, Inc. will be showing FileMaker Mobile 2.1 this week. The companion application to FileMaker extends its reach to PocketPC handhelds and 3 handheld barcode solutions from Symbol with the new release.
I always felt that an equivalent application, released alongside the Newton, would have made all the difference for the platform. NewtonScript was fairly confusing to pick up, with its "data soup" and the resulting tight integration of data across applications.
If there had been a product for producing simple database solutions (inventory, request tracking, point-of-sale, etc.), there might never have been a Palm.
September 18, 2002 in Apple, Apple - Software | Permalink
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I don't know if any application for Newton could have forestalled the Palm: if the Newton had flourished, someone would have realized there was a market big enough to cut into. And the Newton would have had to solve the form factor problem: the Palm was designed to fit in a shirt pocket, where the Newton was designed to contain your world. That makes a difference.
This is still the issue with the Tablet PC, the various handhelds, even subnotebooks. These things have to fit the human hand -- the usual input device -- and a keyboard or other manual interface can only get so small. The Palm shrinks it down by using Graffiti, but no one wants to do a lot of input with that: it's more a display device for AvantGo and your appointments. The Newton had the larger screen for note-taking, but that got it out of the shirt-pocket. It fits in a coat pocket, but who wears coats anymore?
I'm still thinking of getting an 802.11 card for mine and seeing how it works.
Posted by: paul at Sep 18, 2002 1:28:38 PM
