Newton, Inc.

Newton, Inc. was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple Computer that was spun off in 1997 to focus on the marketing of the Newton mobile platform and licensing technology for devices that run Newton OS.

History
The Newton project was begun by Steve Sakoman around 1987 with the support of Apple executives Jean-Louis Gassée and John Sculley. However, Sakoman and Gassée left Apple in 1990 to form Be, Inc. Sculley assigned Larry Tesler to salvage the project and Steve Capps was brought in to become the chief architect. Sculley unveiled the first Newton product, the MessagePad, on May 29, 1992 during the keynote address of the.

On May 22, 1997, Apple's new CEO Gil Amelio announced that the Newton Systems Group would be spun off into a separate subsidiary company. Sandy Benett, who had been serving as the group's vice president, was appointed chief operating officer and a CEO search was initiated. The establishment of Newton, Inc. was formalized on July 1, 1997 with about 170 employees. The MessagePad 2100 was the first and only model to be released under the "Newton Technology" brand.

The subsidiary was soon re-absorbed back into Apple Computer after Amelio was fired by the board of directors and co-founder Steve Jobs took over as interim CEO. Jobs cancelled the Newton platform on February 27, 1998. By then, only 30 employees remained in the group; many had left to work at Palm, a competitor in the mobile computing market.

Articles

 * Today in Apple history: Newton spins off as its own company by Luke Dormehl at Cult of Mac (2020-05-22)