Well, how about that? Just because Apple has no faith in the recently-Steved Newton platform doesn't mean that others out there don't think it's worth saving. Planet Computing of Austin, TX is a small developer of software for handheld computers who says they made an offer to buy the Newton from Apple some three weeks ago, but it seems Apple's not selling. A PCWeek article has the details.

According to Planet, after receiving the offer, Apple "asked for the moon," whatever that implies, though they haven't actually made a written counteroffer yet. Regardless, an Apple spokeswoman claims that they'd consider selling Newton "if an attractive value is presented." Er, forgive us if we're being a tad dense, but what constitutes an "attractive offer," we wonder? After all, Apple's ceased development of the platform, so selling it for any price sounds like a profit. Granted, we wouldn't like to see it get sold for twenty bucks and a pack of gum, but we'd downgrade the requirement of an "attractive" offer to that of a "reasonable" one. (Of course, what Apple considers "reasonable" is anybody's guess, but we're willing to bet it's quite a lot higher than what most people would accept.)

Now, why would Apple be hesitant to unload Newton? Could it be that they still harbor some hope or plan of resurrecting the platform when they're on better financial footing? Or, more likely, they plan to strip-mine the Newton OS for facets to use in the upcoming "thin client" version of the Mac OS, which will run on new Apple handhelds in 1999. But if neither of these is the case and Apple's just clutching for the sake of clutching, we'd like to see them do the right thing by their Newton customers and sell the technology off to someone who will continue to develop and support it. Imagine-- maybe Planet would release a Pilot-sized Newton. Now that would make us smile.