Newton Museum Closing Its Doors

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

A website museum dedicated to the first PDA is shutting down. You may recall that the term “personal digital assistant” was coined on January 7, 1992 by then-Apple Computer CEO John Sculley at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, when referring to the Apple Newton.

There are still diehard fans of the Newton, despite Apple’s decision to quit the sector in 1998. The Newton Museum has a vast collection, and is currently auctioning it off at eBay. At the time of this writing the highest bid is $2,100.50; the auction ends at 5:00 PM PST December 26.

We Say: The Newton never really caught on, but it’s sad to see this museum go. Hardly a year goes by without some rumor related to Apple releasing a new PDA. Perhaps, with the pervasiveness of the iPod, we might see something eventually which combines iPod ease-of-use with PDA functionality, and redefines that sector as the iPod did with MP3 players.