A fun #marchintosh surprise from @csilverman 😁 what fun and thank you!!

We got to experience this unusual Mac for a few hours before (predictably) the barrel jack gave up on this 5300-based machine. HD imaging and some touch-up work on the docket! 🤞

@likesoldmacs @csilverman crumbs, like #appleNewton big brother

#newton #apple #retroComputing #retro

@falken @likesoldmacs @csilverman Yeah, somewhere between the early #AppleNewton 'Cadillac' #prototype and an #eMate300 (sans keyboard), if it had been in the PowerBook color palette.

See @splorp's photos of the 'Cadillac':

https://flickr.com/photos/splorp/albums/72157623287193080/

And, Sonny Hung's:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sonnyhung/albums/72057594095135157/

@morgant @falken @csilverman @splorp whoa! That is one cool device!

@likesoldmacs @morgant @falken @splorp I think I remember from "Defying Gravity" that Apple almost went with Cadillac, or something like it. Michael Tchao, who handled product marketing for Newton, was on the same flight with Sculley and talked him into the smaller form factor, which was probably a good idea, since I heard somewhere that Cadillac would've cost something like $8K.

A bit surprising to me that Apple never actually released a Mac tablet, given how many of these they prototyped.

@csilverman @likesoldmacs @morgant @falken @splorp Why was that a good thing? Newton wasn’t very successful, so it wouldn’t have made much difference, would it? 🤔

@proedie @csilverman @likesoldmacs @morgant @falken We can’t possibly know if a tablet form factor would have made a difference or not. However, the Newton platform was growing in education (the eMate was going gangbusters) and specific vertical markets when it was cancelled.

@splorp @proedie @likesoldmacs @morgant @falken I do think it's safe to say that an $8K tablet would've bombed worse than Newton ever did. They'd have sold three, one to Sculley's mother.

Newton the product wasn't a success, but Newton the idea was a *huge* success. The PalmPilot was basically Newton as it should have been: smaller, lighter, less capable but less expensive. If Apple had built a "Newton Mini" before Palm did, who knows—iPhone could've been an update to an existing product line.

@csilverman @proedie @likesoldmacs @morgant @falken I agree on all points. Although I also think that if Apple had committed to developing a tablet-sized Newton device, it could have ended up being priced closer to the MessagePad 2x00, but obviously higher due to manufacturing. Of course, I’m just spit-balling.