March 4, 1994: Well, How Do You Like Them Apples…er, Newtons

Apple had high hopes for the Newton but when the product was introduced the reception was tepid at best. The reasons were obvious: the Newton's handwriting recognition was so poor as to be fodder for cartoonist G.B. Trudeau, there weren't many third party applications available, and the mail program wasn't fully operational.

Six months after the original Newton rolled out, the first updates appeared: the MessagePad 100 and 110. The 100 was the original Newton with a new ROM chip. The MessagePad 110, on the other hand, featured several changes. On the plus side, the 110 packed a megabyte of RAM, had a cool flip-open lid and 28 hours of battery life. On the downside, the already too large Newton form factor grew by three quarters of an inch in length and the screen resolution was smaller by almost four thousand pixels.

Both models featured price drops: where the original Newton cost a cool $799, the 100 and 110 could be had for $499 and $599, respectively. Apple's first revisions of the Newton appeared on March 4, 1994.