Newton MessagePad
The Apple Newton MessagePad, originally released in 1993, was in many ways ahead of its time. The pen-based computer promised to be one of the first “post-PC” devices but ultimately flopped. At the time, the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg called it “too expensive,” “too exotic,” and “too imperfect to lure most people from pen and paper.” Ouch. The product would be largely abandoned by Apple even though the idea carried on with personal digital assistants like the PalmPilot. Apple eventually did take another stab at the concept when it released the iPad in 2010.
