Apple Rehires Newton Developer Michael Tchao

[Maserati7200]

I'm not really in the market for a tablet because i don't really know what to do with one. Maybe Apple's tablet with have something new and revolutionary.

A bit OT, but why are the positions always a "Vice President" of this or that...

Is there a President of Product Marketing? Why is Phil Schiller the Senior VP, when its obvious he's the head honcho of the department?

I've always wondered that myself.

 

[Maserati7200]

Unless the company is structured with separate autonomous divisions, "there can be only one" President. The top executives under the President are all Vice Presidents, although they can be further sorted with descriptors like Associate VP, Senior VP and Executive VP. These VPs are often in charge of something.

In effect, you're missing a comma. Phil Schiller is "Senior VP, of Worldwide Product Marketing", much like someone can be "Duke, of Edinburgh". There is no one higher than Duke "in charge" of Edinburgh; there is no King of Edinburgh. So there is no comma in actual usage.

Ah. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[eastercat]

It sort of bugs me that a man behind a failed product is being brought back. Here's hoping time has made him wiser.

 

[*LTD*]

It sort of bugs me that a man behind a failed product is being brought back. Here's hoping time has made him wiser.

Now that you mention it, it's starting to bother me as well . . .

Damnit!

 

[DeepIn2U]

Odd!

Very interesting as the old techies still can get jobs these days.

But a Newton developer?! I'm old enough to have used a Newton in my young childhood and it was HUGE. I even remember bashing the iPhone as a smartphone contender or its success begin equal to not more than the Newton and look at me now .... from Symbian to iPhone BLISS!!!!!

I do remember one sweet feature of the Newton that many others, long time Mac users may not know or remember. In OS when you deleted an alias from the dock (maybe before Panther) it made a "Puff" cloud-dust like animation. Well it gets its roots from the Newton!!

 

[puffnstuff]

It sort of bugs me that a man behind a failed product is being brought back. Here's hoping time has made him wiser.

I think it failed because it was ahead of its time. I look at the specs of it today and I think to myself I so want a messagepad..

Now is certainly the time to release a revamped messagepad with the netbook craze going on now and certainly there has been a lot of buzz about it coming from tech blogs and magazines. So there is an interest for it today.

Certainly it will sell more than the Air.

 

[notjustjay]

he got rehired as Vice President for Product Marketing, which means that Apple could be done with the Tablet and now needs to find a way to Market the device to US.

I'm skeptical about that. Apple is about the only technology company that DOESN'T say "OK, now that we've developed this fancy, shiny new device... uh... has anyone thought about how we're going to market this thing?"

 

[rollsroyce442]

first, we bring back the Newton, next, the pippin?

 

[kdarling]

I think it failed because it was ahead of its time.

Yes. Many good ideas just need decent hardware to run on.

Just like the way that Apple stayed out of the phone business until the displays, cpus, radios, GPS chips, and everything else fell into place.

One thing the rehiring points out again, is that innovations depend mostly on individuals, not companies.

But it's interesting that it happened right after Microsoft showed off their booklet project.

I think it'd be funny if lots of older innovators were hired on both sides during the next few months... a memory war, as it were. Who next, Larry Tesler?

 

[ShiftyPig]

I just don't see a market for $600-900 tablets. Suppose it runs full OSX - what will this thing be able to do that I can't do on a MacBook?

And what can't I do on the tablet that I could do on laptop? Type efficiently. Carry it in a backpack without scratching the screen. Connect to the Internet via an Ethernet cable...

Just because the technology exists to create something doesn't make it a good consumer product. See Segway (2001).

 

[mac jones]

They just want somebody who has experience in failure around when this tablet bombs.

 

[puffnstuff]

People keep saying it will bomb because they are looking at the present tablets. I don't think you can base what Apple may be planning on doing with what is out today. I think they are going to be making a different monster if that makes any sense and it won't bomb even if Apple comes out with something exactly like archos 9 it will sell because of the Apple logo on the back. Apple has that kind of power to where they can sell sh*t literally and people will buy it.


Apple reinvented the MP3 player to the point where people call any old MP3 player iPods and iPods have there own special section in stores

They reinvented the smartphone and PDA with the iPhone and iPod touch. Gave it a more touch friendly OS and now everybody is going in that direction.

I don't see how the tablet market would be any different.

 

[inkswamp]

If rumors are correct and this pertains to a tablet, this is late in the development stage. I agree with comments that he's probably being brought to help market the device as opposed to shape what it will be.

IIRC, wasn't the Newton axed partly because its main buyers were in the medical industry and Apple had no clue how to deal with that market? Maybe they're heading off that same problem this time by bringing someone in ahead of time who knows what to expect.

 

[Rot'nApple]

Welcome Back, Tchao

 

[ShiftyPig]

People keep saying it will bomb because they are looking at the present tablets. I don't think you can base what Apple may be planning on doing with what is out today. I think they are going to be making a different monster if that makes any sense and it won't bomb even if Apple comes out with something exactly like archos 9 it will sell because of the Apple logo on the back. Apple has that kind of power to where they can sell sh*t literally and people will buy it.


Apple reinvented the MP3 player to the point where people call any old MP3 player iPods and iPods have there own special section in stores

They reinvented the smartphone and PDA with the iPhone and iPod touch. Gave it a more touch friendly OS and now everybody is going in that direction.

I don't see how the tablet market would be any different.

This is the problem with the tablet: what does it replace in a person's life? An iPod replaced our CD and cassette players. The iPhone replaced cell phones that couldn't access the Internet/email/music.

If you think a tablet replaces my laptop, you're nuts. If you think a tablet will carve out some new niche in my life that I never thought possible before, you're even more nuts. Suppose it focuses on media (likely) - do I really need a $600 dongle to access my music and movies?

The only people who will line up to buy this are FBs, end of.

 

[Firefly2002]

The iPhone's the new Newton

 

[rumplestiltskin]

Maybe Mr. Tchao will autograph my eMate.

Y'know, I was thoroughly enjoying this thread and then you had to mention the eMate. (Pardon me while I make my peace at the porcelain altar.)

I used to sell them for Apple...not enough to make serious enemies, however. Please, let us not see anything like that again!

 

[puffnstuff]

This is the problem with the tablet: what does it replace in a person's life? An iPod replaced our CD and cassette players. The iPhone replaced cell phones that couldn't access the Internet/email/music.

If you think a tablet replaces my laptop, you're nuts. If you think a tablet will carve out some new niche in my life that I never thought possible before, you're even more nuts. Suppose it focuses on media (likely) - do I really need a $600 dongle to access my music and movies?

The only people who will line up to buy this are FBs, end of.

I do not recall the MP3 player being a hot commodity until the iPod came out. There were MP3 players before before the iPod yet still people gravitated to CD players. Once the iPod came out everyone wanted a MP3 player. The smartphone was just for business people but the iPhone changed that and made that market segment hot everybody wants a smartphone now.

My point is that it may seems pointless and unusable now but Apple can change the way consumers view a product. Call me nuts but it is the truth.

Personally I think it makes perfect sense. When a screen is smaller than 12" I rather have a tablet with a touch oriented OS like iPhone OS over a tiny netbook with a full blown OS, a small keyboard and trackpad.

 

[rollsroyce442]

People keep saying it will bomb because they are looking at the present tablets. I don't think you can base what Apple may be planning on doing with what is out today. I think they are going to be making a different monster if that makes any sense and it won't bomb even if Apple comes out with something exactly like archos 9 it will sell because of the Apple logo on the back. Apple has that kind of power to where they can sell sh*t literally and people will buy it.


Apple reinvented the MP3 player to the point where people call any old MP3 player iPods and iPods have there own special section in stores

They reinvented the smartphone and PDA with the iPhone and iPod touch. Gave it a more touch friendly OS and now everybody is going in that direction.

I don't see how the tablet market would be any different.

Not everything with an apple Logo makes it. A few recent flops;

Apple Bluetooth headset

ipod HiFi

AppleTV (its still just a hobby device)

Macbook Air (I like 'um but they didn't get the attention that apple was planning)

 

[Firefly2002]

The iPhone's the new Newton

 

[i.mac]

It sort of bugs me that a man behind a failed product is being brought back. Here's hoping time has made him wiser.

the newton did not fail, it was a product ahead of its time. the times failed the newton back then...

 

[chasemac]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/7C144)

Who doesn't need a nice big iPod! It will sell like hot dogs.

 

[LEStudios]

I've said it before- I don't need a tablet, but if anyone could convince me otherwise, it'd be Apple... worst case scenario, I'm not convinced that I need one and still end up with a nice piece of Apple eye-candy to eventually toy around with.

Yeah that's everybody here!

 

[LEStudios]

It sort of bugs me that a man behind a failed product is being brought back. Here's hoping time has made him wiser.

If you really think about it when I first seen iPhone I was think thinking a Newton Phone, why? iPhone and iPod Touch really to me is a resurrected Newton running Mac OS X Leopard.

 

[saving107]

They just want somebody who has experience in failure around when this tablet bombs.

I just thought this was funny...