Editing MessagePad (section)

==Market reception==
Fourteen months after Sculley demoed it at the May 1992, Chicago CES, the MessagePad was first offered for sale on August 2, 1993, at the Boston [[Macworld/iWorld|Macworld Expo]].<ref name="HMcC-NR">{{cite magazine |last1=McCracken |first1=Harry |date=June 1, 2012 |title=Newton, Reconsidered / Apple's Newton MessagePad PDA at Twenty |url=https://techland.time.com/2012/06/01/newton-reconsidered/ |url-status=live |department=Technologizer |magazine=Time |publisher=TIME USA, LLC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715005844/http://techland.time.com/2012/06/01/newton-reconsidered/ |archive-date=July 15, 2014 |access-date=5 July 2014}}</ref> The hottest item at the show, it cost $900.<ref name="BSsun-steals">{{cite news |date=August 9, 1993 |title=Newton steals the show at Boston Macworld Expo |newspaper=Baltimore Sun |publisher=Tribune Publishing |agency=Knight-Ridder |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-08-09-1993221046-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=September 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714133644/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-08-09/business/1993221046_1_newton-booth-messagepad |archive-date=July 14, 2014}}</ref> 50,000 MessagePads were sold in the device's first three months on the market.<ref name=HMcC-NR/>

<!--Although the Newton platform was developed and marketed for six years, it was never as successful in the marketplace as Apple had hoped. This was because the technology was too advanced for the time, as the concept of soups, stores, and packages shows.

-->The original Apple MessagePad and MessagePad 100 were limited by the very short lifetime of their inadequate AAA batteries.

[[File:Newton eat up martha.jpg|thumb|right|The Original Apple Newton's handwriting recognition was made light of in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "[[Lisa on Ice]]".]]

{{citation needed span |text=Another factor which limited the early Newton devices' appeal was that desktop connectivity was not included in the basic retail package, a problem that was later solved with 2.x Newton devices - these were bundled with a serial cable and the appropriate Newton Connection Utilities software. |date=September 2023}}

Later versions of Newton OS offered improved handwriting recognition, quite possibly a leading reason for the continued popularity of the devices among Newton users. Even given the age of the hardware and software, Newtons still demand a sale price on the used market far greater than that of comparatively aged PDAs produced by other companies. In 2006, [[CNET]] compared an Apple MessagePad 2000 to a [[Samsung Q1]], and the Newton was declared better.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stevens |first=Chris |date=September 21, 2011 |orig-date=July 27, 2006 |title=Apple Newton vs Samsung Q1 UMPC |url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/apple-newton-vs-samsung-q1-umpc/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100804160720/http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/apple-newton-vs-samsung-q1-umpc-49282099/ |archive-date=August 4, 2010 |access-date=August 18, 2011 |website=[[CNET]] |publisher=CNET Networks}}</ref> In 2009, [[CNET]] compared an Apple MessagePad 2000 to an [[iPhone 3GS]], and the Newton was declared more innovative at its time of release.<ref name="cnet-reid-1109">{{cite web |last1=Reid |first1=Rory |last2=Graham |first2=Flora |date=November 26, 2009 |title=Apple Newton vs Apple iPhone |url=http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-newton-vs-apple-iphone/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714142850/http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-newton-vs-apple-iphone/ |archive-date=July 14, 2014 |access-date=7 July 2014 |website=[[CNET]] |publisher=CBS Interactive}}</ref>

A chain of dedicated Newton-only stores called Newton Source, independently run by Stephen Elms, existed from 1994 until 1998{{Citation needed|date=September 2023|reason=This year is when production of the Newton ended; are there any sources that explicitly say when the Newton Source stores closed?}}. Locations included New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston. The Westwood Village, California, near [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] featured the trademark red and yellow light bulb Newton logo in [[neon]]. The stores provided an informative educational venue to learn about the Newton platform in a hands on relaxed fashion. The stores had no traditional computer retail counters and featured oval desktops where interested users could become intimately involved with the Newton product range. The stores were a model for the later Apple Stores.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fitzpatrick |first=Jason |date=January 25, 2016 |title=Before The Apple Store, There Was A Chain Of Unofficial Apple Retail Locations Known As? |url=https://www.howtogeek.com/trivia/before-the-apple-store-there-was-a-chain-of-unofficial-apple-retail-locations-known-as/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130013850/https://www.howtogeek.com/trivia/before-the-apple-store-there-was-a-chain-of-unofficial-apple-retail-locations-known-as/ |archive-date=January 30, 2018 |access-date=January 29, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Ramstad |first=Evan |date=1994-04-16 |title=N.Y. Store Picks Apple's Newton as Its Specialty: Retail: Newton Source's owner wants his outlet to be a relaxed place for consumers to learn about the hand-held computer. |language=en-US |website=Los Angeles Times |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-16-fi-46763-story.html |access-date=2023-09-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sande |first=Steve |date=2020-08-21 |title=Retro Apple: The Apple Newton MessagePad Was Well Ahead of Its Time |url=https://eshop.macsales.com/blog/64664-apple-newton-messagepad/ |access-date=2023-09-20 |website=Rocket Yard |publisher=[[Other World Computing|OWC]] |language=en-US |publication-place=Woodstock, IL}}</ref>