Random Apple Memory
Why the eMate didn’t make many friends. Plus, what to expect next issue…
Apple’s Newton MessagePa d, which appeared in 1993 after a long gestation, was a groundbreaking product – but not a successful one. Handwriting recognition was central to its failure: it worked poorly, and the processing power and screen required were too expensive. As other features were added to increase the book-sized device’s appeal, its price rose unstoppably, and by 1997 it still wasn’t obvious who’d want to pay it.
The eMate was a solution – the kind of solution a marketing committee would come up with. Handwriting a problem? Give it a keyboard! Too expensive? Cut the price! No clear audience? Target a market! In fact, although this happened just before Steve Jobs’ return, the strategy was one he’d tried with his workstation company, NeXT: if nobody else would buy it, maybe academics would. Indeed, the “e” in “eMate” stood for “education.”
One of the first products styled for Apple by Jonathan Ive, the $800 eMate had a bulbous translucent case that prefigured the 1998 iMac. In brightly lit pictures its color resembled the iMac’s Bondi Blue, but in the flesh (or under grim office lights) it looked a dark sea-green – closer to HR Giger’s designs for Alien than a toy.
While the combination of keyboard and stylus made it feel practical and fun, the monochrome screen was less than engaging. However, although no sales figures were ever released, the eMate seemed fairly popular. Even when Jobs disbanded Newton, Inc in November 1997, he told a concerned customer: “The eMate has a bright future – and it is for this reason that I am pulling it back into Apple.” He discontinued the whole range just three months later. Having seen the rise of netbooks and tablets, we might conclude the eMate was ahead of its time… kind of.