Uh-oh, Don Crabb's going off about the Newton again. For a technology that launched the whole PDA category, he says, Apple sure has been kicking it around for the last few years. High prices, marketing strategies that span the range between "lousy" and "non-existent," spin-offs that get spun back in, rumors of cancellation just before each new product's rollout-- you know the drill.

But it's the price structure of the Newton MessagePad that makes us take issue with Don's claim that the Newton "still dominates its product category." At an even grand, a new MessagePad 2100 costs more than many closeout and refurbished Powerbooks. (We paid $1100 for our new-but-discontinued Duo 280c over a year and a half ago.) So when he says that the Newton does more than comparable Windows CE devices, he fails to mention that it does significantly less than a Powerbook, whose price point it matches much more closely than, say, the PalmPilot. Think about it. The MessagePad is really too large to fit in a pocket, and if you're going to carry a bag anyway, why not bring along a small laptop instead? Yes, the Newton does handwriting recognition, so you can take notes without disturbing the others in the meeting, and its battery life is an order of magnitude better than that of any laptop-- but you get our point.

Here's why Newton isn't going anywhere: No other Apple product has been treated as shabbily or held in limbo so long or so frequently. Without Newton, what would Apple abuse? That said, we hope (as Don does) that Apple does right by Newton in 1998-- the technology's too cool to keep shackled to the big bucks. Hey Apple, give us a smaller MessagePad in a high-impact eMate-like shell for $500 and you've got our money. However, given that hardly anyone's left at Newton these days, having been "let go, forced out, or just plain vanished," we're not holding our breath.