In the 1990s, one of the most curious launches by Apple took place: the Newton, a personal digital assistant that anticipated the revolution of our interaction with technology. This device, with its compact design, user interface based on the use of a digital pen, and Internet connectivity capabilities, not only stood out for its great innovation at the time but also as a precursor vision of what would later be the iPhone. Let's revisit the history of the Newton, often considered the "iPhone of the 90s," and look, through its advertising campaign, at its legacy and its influence on current technology.
Ahead of its time in the digital era: the pre-iPhone
Apple's advertising strategy for the Newton broke molds, just like the device itself. The TV commercials, which can be seen below these lines, highlighted the innovations of the Newton while also aspiring to connect with as broad a professional audience as possible. Through these ads, which combined both humor and originality, Apple set the guidelines for what its advertising style would be in the future, emphasizing the Newton's capabilities to keep the user connected and productive anywhere.
At the time, the Newton represented a very significant advance, offering functionalities such as Scribble, for example, which allowed users to write by hand and convert those notes into digital text. Something that years later arrived on the iPad with the Apple Pencil and that already appears in these shorts. Other examples include sending messages from anywhere, or the ability to send and receive faxes.
The story of the Newton, however, had a somewhat abrupt end. With Steve Jobs's return to Apple in the late 90s, the company decided to discontinue the Newton, thus closing a brief, but fascinating, chapter in Apple's history. Despite its discontinuation, the legacy of the Newton endures in current devices. The vision of a fully integrated, user-centered, intuitive device capable of performing a wide range of tasks through a touchscreen materialized later in products like the iPhone and then the iPad.
The Newton ads are part of Apple's rich history of advertising and technology. Ads that bring us closer to a crucial chapter in the evolution of one of the world's most influential companies, showing that with the Newton, Apple managed to glimpse the future in a way that no one else could.
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