Newton 2.0 Wins ‘Mobility Award’ at Mobile Insights ’96
CUPERTINO, Calif. — March 4, 1996 — The Newton 2.0 operating system from Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), received top honors at the Mobile Insights '96 conference held last week in Phoenix, Arizona. Newton 2.0, the operating system for Apple's MessagePad personal digital assistant (PDA), as well as devices from Newton licensees, won the Mobility Award for System Software, prevailing over other nominees — Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 95, General Magic Inc.'s Magic Cap for Windows and Geoworks' Geos. In its second year, Mobile Insights Inc.'s Mobility Awards is one of the first industry awards to recognize the top products and services in mobile computing and wireless communications.
"Apple winning the Mobility Award for system software is a testimonial to the hard work the Newton team has done to improve the original Newton operating system released two years ago," said Dr. J. Gerry Purdy, president and CEO of Mobile Insights Inc. "The selection was made by an awards committee composed of 22 leading analysts and editors that represent the mobile market."
The Newton 2.0 operating system was first available on the Apple MessagePad 120 and began shipping in December 1995. The enhanced operating system offers improved handwriting recognition, solutions for organizing and communicating information via fax or electronic mail, as well as the ability to integrate with Windows and Mac OS-based computers and enterprise environments. The creation of Newton 2.0 underscores Apple's commitment to the evolving PDA market by providing a more flexible and extensible development environment for a growing number of partners and solutions providers, including independent software developers, systems integrators and value-added resellers.
"This is great reward for all of the efforts that went into making the Newton the premier PDA platform for both mobile professionals and developers alike," said Steve Andler, senior director of mobile products at Apple Computer. "Newton 2.0 is a major revision that offers enhanced personal computer integration, communications and organization capabilities. Receiving the Mobility Award says to us — 'job well done.'"
Attracted to its robust and open platform, more than 100 independent software developers are currently creating commercial and custom applications for the Newton platform. One such developer, Datastream Systems Inc. of Greenville, S.C., this month was honored by Plant Engineering, the most widely circulated plant and maintenance engineering magazine, for its maintenance management software designed for use with the Newton 2.0 OS. Datastream's Personal Maintenance Assistant software was granted the Plant Engineering 1995 Product of the Year Gold Award in the General and Maintenance Software category.
"The MessagePad's ability to integrate with PCs has enabled us to provide the first Windows-based computerized maintenance management system software package for the Newton operating system, said Fury Christ, vice president of development at Datastream Systems Inc. "Our recently developed Personal Maintenance Assistant software enables us to better serve the needs of mobile maintenance professionals, and we chose the Newton platform because of its wide acceptance by many PDA manufacturers."
Apple Computer, Inc., a recognized innovator in the information industry and leader in multimedia technologies, creates powerful solutions based on easy-to-use personal computers, servers, peripherals, software, online services, and personal digital assistants. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) develops, manufactures, licenses and markets solutions, products, technologies and services for business, education, consumer, entertainment, scientific and engineering and government customers in over 140 countries.
Customer Information Contact: If you are considering the purchase of an Apple product and would like to have product information faxed to you, call 1-800-462-4396 in the U.S. or 415-598-4329 in Canada. If you do not have a fax machine or would like to locate an Apple authorized reseller near you, call 1-800-538-9696. Customers outside the U.S. should contact their local Apple representatives for information.
Apple's home page on the World Wide Web: http://www.apple.com
Newton home page on the World Wide Web, the centralized location for obtaining information about the Newton platform: http://www.info.apple.com/newton
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Jennie Shikashio of Regis McKenna Inc., 408-974-1867, or email: shikashio1@applelink.apple.com, for Apple Computer