Former Newton developer rehired by Apple for marketing role
Fifteen years after he left Apple, one of the original developers of the Newton touchscreen handheld device has returned to the company, as it is believed to be developing that product's spiritual successor.
The hiring of Michael Tchao was confirmed Monday evening by The New York Times. In his role, he will report directly to Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
From June 1990 to August 1994, his title with Apple was group manager, product planning & strategy, personal interactive electronics. Prior to that, starting in 1986, he held a few other managerial positions with the Mac maker.
Prior to his re-hiring, Tchao worked with iPods as the general manager for Nike Techlab and Nike+. He had been with the shoe maker since 2002.
Given Tchao's involvement with Apple's now-defunct Newton, as well as persistent reports of Apple's anticipated tablet, expected to arrive in early 2010, the Times hypothesizes that his role could be to market the new device. Reports suggest it will be a 10-inch, 3G-enabled touchscreen device much like a large iPod touch.
"It is not clear what his new duties at Apple will entail; Apple would not comment further on the matter, and Mr. Tchao did not immediately respond to a phone message," the report said. "But identifying a market for the much-rumored Apple tablet could certainly be among them. Mr. Tchao gets the credit (or perhaps the blame) for convincing John Sculley, Apple?s former chief executive, to integrate the company?s handwriting-recognition technology into a consumer device."
One anonymous source said that Tchao is a man with "great ideas" -- as well as his share of "scars" -- regarding tablet computing.
The hiring of Michael Tchao was confirmed Monday evening by The New York Times. In his role, he will report directly to Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
From June 1990 to August 1994, his title with Apple was group manager, product planning & strategy, personal interactive electronics. Prior to that, starting in 1986, he held a few other managerial positions with the Mac maker.
Prior to his re-hiring, Tchao worked with iPods as the general manager for Nike Techlab and Nike+. He had been with the shoe maker since 2002.
Given Tchao's involvement with Apple's now-defunct Newton, as well as persistent reports of Apple's anticipated tablet, expected to arrive in early 2010, the Times hypothesizes that his role could be to market the new device. Reports suggest it will be a 10-inch, 3G-enabled touchscreen device much like a large iPod touch.
"It is not clear what his new duties at Apple will entail; Apple would not comment further on the matter, and Mr. Tchao did not immediately respond to a phone message," the report said. "But identifying a market for the much-rumored Apple tablet could certainly be among them. Mr. Tchao gets the credit (or perhaps the blame) for convincing John Sculley, Apple?s former chief executive, to integrate the company?s handwriting-recognition technology into a consumer device."
One anonymous source said that Tchao is a man with "great ideas" -- as well as his share of "scars" -- regarding tablet computing.
Comments
When I saw this video I though..man the Newton was really ahead and probably that's why it failed. No one was ready for it. Yes there were problems with it but the thing looks really amazing. The only thing missing was wireless internet access, which didn't exist then.
That's what many of us have been saying about the Newton for YEARS!
It was a fantastic, forward thinking device that was WAY over-hyped and put on the market a generation too soon. had the handwriting recognition been better in version 1, the story would have been FAR different than it turned out.
...oh wait... just skimmed the article... never-mind!
Dave
That's what many of us have been saying about the Newton for YEARS!
It was a fantastic, forward thinking device that was WAY over-hyped and put on the market a generation too soon. had the handwriting recognition been better in version 1, the story would have been FAR different than it turned out.
I still remember when it was released years back (around 1994?), I was in high school then. I wanted to get one but it was too expensive. I used the money I saved to buy a desktop PC with 33 Mhz intel processor (there was a turbo switch to bring it up to 66 Mhz), CD player, and a printer. I can't remember the amount of RAM and the size of the HDD but they can't be more than few MB. I remember everyone was WOW this is fast machine
Now people complain that a device the size of your palm have a "slow" 600Mhz processor with 256MB RAM and 32GB storage space
I still remember when it was released years back (around 1994?), I was in high school then. I wanted to get one but it was too expensive. I used the money I saved to buy a desktop PC with 33 Mhz intel processor (there was a turbo switch to bring it up to 66 Mhz), CD player, and a printer. I can't remember the amount of RAM and the size of the HDD but they can't be more than few MB. I remember everyone was WOW this is fast machine
Now people complain that a device the size of your palm have a "slow" 600Mhz processor with 256MB RAM and 32GB storage space
I miss the Turbo switch from the 286/386 etc. days. It was like, "f** yeah lets get it on!!!" when you pressed it and the numbers (sometimes displayed prominently in digital form on the case) magically doubled.
I miss the Turbo switch from the 286/386 etc. days. It was like, "f** yeah lets get it on!!!" when you pressed it and the numbers (sometimes displayed prominently in digital form on the case) magically doubled.
Mine was pressed in all the time, you mean you actually used the "non-turbo" mode? LOL, maybe Windows ran too fast. NOT!
I've met with him and this guy is brilliant.
Well, he better not f** this one up!
Mine was pressed in all the time, you mean you actually used the "non-turbo" mode? LOL, maybe Windows ran too fast. NOT!
Well, he better not f** this one up!
Windows?
Don't you mean DOS?
While goodness all around, I thought the iPhone was the Newton's spiritual successor.
Nah, the iPhone/iPod touch can fit in a pocket and can be operated with one hand. There is no handwriting recognition.
The MessagePad pretty much always required two-handed operation. One to hold the thing, the other held the stylus. If you visit the Wikipedia entry for the Apple Newton, you can see a photo comparing an iPhone dwarfed by a MessagePad 2100.
Hell, I almost wish for a really simple looking phone that shares 3G data over wifi. I might have bought that plus an iPod Touch (which would then get wifi everywhere), instead of an iPhone.
Just one data service please
I wonder if the modern Apple would release a device that was either of those things.
Maybe now we will finally get the EXTERNAL KEYBOARD and PEN INPUT that the Newton had back in 1997!
The iPhone has been dumbed down to be a "smart phone" instead of a "powerful portable computer and communication device."
I rather have something much more powerful like a Mac or a Newton than dumbed down iPhone or iTouch.
Try writing a few paragraphs or doing even the simplest of graphics on the iPhone and you will realize what a toy it is.
The iPhone can be, and should be much more powerful instead of having it's functionally arbitrarily limited.
Mine was pressed in all the time, you mean you actually used the "non-turbo" mode? LOL, maybe Windows ran too fast. NOT!
Haha for some games you had to run with Turbo "off". Because the game would run too fast. All your bases would be belonged before you could even blink if you were playing games from few years ago.
Windows?
Don't you mean DOS?
286/ 386 era there was the ol' Windows 3.x ... the fun experimental days before the craptacular Win95 and Win98/Me...
I miss the Turbo switch from the 286/386 etc. days. It was like, "f** yeah lets get it on!!!" when you pressed it and the numbers (sometimes displayed prominently in digital form on the case) magically doubled.
As far as I know the TURBO button was to be used the other way round.
It was for compatibility mode, for playing 286 games/apps that were tied to a certain CPU speed.
So games would run too fast so you have to hit the turbo.