[69] in bcs-newton
Apple Announces Licensing Strategies and Alliances For Newton
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Albert Willis)
Thu Mar 25 10:51:12 1993
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 93 10:23:46 EST
From: awillis@MIT.EDU (Albert Willis)
To: bcs-newton@world.std.com
MOVED OVER PR NEWSWIRE AT 8:00 AM, EST, THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1993.
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Frank O'Mahoney
Apple Computer, Inc.
408-974-5420
Laurence Clavere
Apple Europe
(33) 1 49 01 48 82
Apple Announces Licensing Strategies and Alliances For Newton
Technology
HANNOVER, Germany--March 25, 1993--Apple Computer, Inc. today made a
number of announcements underlining its commitment to make its Newton
technology a pervasive standard available to the computer, consumer
and telecommunications industries. Apple aims to license key
technologies to companies who can manufacture and market a variety of
exciting new products--based on Newton technology--to a broad range
of customers. Newton is a family of personal digital assistant (PDA)
products and technologies from Apple Computer due to be launched
later this year. Newton technologies have been designed in such a way
that key elements and components can be licensed to third parties.
Several companies have announced their commitment and support for
Newton technologies. Among them are:
- Sharp Corporation
Sharp Corporation, Apple's strategic ally in the development and
manufacture of Newton, has recently announced that it is to be a
licensee of the ARM chip which will be at the heart of the Newton
family. Sharp joins two other ARM licensees, VLSI and GEC-Plessey.
- Motorola
Motorola has announced an agreement with Apple Computer, Inc. to
license Apple's Newton technology in order to manufacture and market
a handheld device featuring integrated, wireless communications
capabilities based on the Newton operating system.
- Siemens Private Communications Systems Group and ROLM
Apple and Siemens announced their plans to collaborate on the
development of NotePhone, a combination of Siemens-ROLM telephony and
Newton technology which will provide access to telephone and fax
features.
- Cirrus Logic
Cirrus Logic has announced their support of Newton technology by
developing and supplying Newton-compatible chipsets for use by
licensees of the Newton operating system and by Apple itself in its
planned Newton products.
- Kyushu Matsushita Electric
Kyushu Matsushita Electric (KME) announced an agreement to license
the Newton operating system from Apple for use in future products.
Apple and KME also intend to explore the opportunity to include KME-
provided technology in future Newton family products.
- LSI Logic
LSI Logic is manufacturing an Application-Specific Integrated
Circuit (ASIC) chip for Newton PDA's. The ASIC provides the interface
between the microprocessor, the memory and the user interface. The
device is cell-based, full custom and uses 1-micron process
technology.
Announcing the agreements, Gaston Bastiaens, vice president and
general manager, Personal Interactive Electronics division at Apple,
said, "Today we are setting the stage to create a worldwide standard
for personal digital assistants available to the entire industry.
This will allow the computer, consumer electronics and
telecommunications industries to come together to provide a rich,
integrated platform for the development community--and ultimately for
all of their customers. We are very pleased with our progress so
far, and look forward to joining with others in creating exciting new
products based around Newton technologies."
-30-
Apple and the Apple logo are registered trademarks and Newton and
PowerCD are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
Siemens is a registered trademark of Siemens Aktiengesellschaft; and
NotePhone is a trademark of Siemens.
ROLM is a registered trademark of ROLM Company.
ARM is a trademark of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.
Note to Editor: See attached Licensing Newton white paper for
additional information.
Attachment
Licensing Newton
"... as different industries converge and as these technologies come
together, no single company will be able to control all that is
needed to meet customer demand. This means that alliances will
become increasingly important in the coming years"
- John Sculley, Shareholders' Meeting, January 1993.
Apple's Newton Licensing Strategy--Summary
1. We have developed a portfolio of licensable products, based on
Newton technology.
2. We are committed to broadly licensing these products in order to
create a standard.
3. We plan to retain control of the Newton architecture to maintain
consistent user experience.
Companies working with Apple on Newton
- Sharp Corporation
- Siemens AG & ROLM
- Motorola, Inc.
- Cirrus Logic
- Kyushu Matsushita Electric
ARM Semiconductor Partners:
- GEC Plessey Semiconductors
- Sharp Corporation
- VLSI Technology
Apple Computer, Inc. has shown that it can create 'hit products'.
The Macintosh Classic, LC and PowerBook have each been both
critically and popularly acclaimed. Apple believes that Newton
technology will be another success. At the Consumer Electronics Show
in 1992 Apple Chairman John Sculley coined the term Personal Digital
Assistant, and indicated that Apple would have an offering in this
brand new category. As we expected, many other companies soon
afterwards announced that they had "PDA's" under development. Apple
however had laid the ground and created the demand. We now have a
licensing strategy which is designed to manage the complex business
relationships that are required in order to bring this nascent
industry to the market.
Apple's Personal Interactive Electronics (PIE) Division has announced
that it will license its Newton technology--what does this mean?
As we have developed Newton technologies we have discovered ever-
increasing ways in which customers would like to use these
technologies. We believe that these core Newton technologies stand
at the crossroads of the computer, consumer and communications
industries, offering customers completely new ways of working and
opportunities to re-engineer the ways that they work, learn and play.
As industries and competing businesses converge, we see vibrant new
interdependencies being created which demand that major industry
players become co-operators in these new emerging businesses. This
is new ground for many companies, including Apple. The strength of
Newton technologies is such that we intend to come to the market
accepted as the PDA standard.
As we have shown our Newton technology to potential partners,
customers and developers they have seen the potential that it brings
to their products and businesses. Often other businesses have seen
Newton technologies as a possible catalyst to bring to life many of
the ideas and plans that they are holding for their own future
products.
We intend to reach out to a broad range of licensees. With these
licensees we hope to make Newton an industry standard by delivering
compatibility and unique performance capabilities to a broad range of
customers. By adding additional licensees who bring valuable
knowledge, skills and technology to the Newton platform we think we
are better able to meet customers needs as industries converge and
whole new classes of products come to market.
Already several major corporations have indicated agreement to work
with Apple on Newton technology. Our key partner in the development
of Newton is Sharp Corporation . Other recently announcements
included Siemens AG, Motorola , Cirrus Logic, and Kyushu Matsushita
Electric. The ARM chip, at the heart of Newton, has been licensed to
GEC-Plessey, VLSI and Sharp Corporation.
We believe that we have developed a world-leading set of
technologies in Newton. We expect market acceptance for not only
Apple's implementation but also those of our licensees to be extremely
high. This should give customers a wide variety of choices, in a wide
variety of locations--with the promise of the quality and innovation
signified by the Newton logo on the product. This large market will
also lead to a wide range of applications, delivered in many
different ways--online, off-the-shelf, through the mail, etc.
Apple's online services are planned to be available to Newton-
licensed products, providing such things as news, weather, sport,
travel planning, financial services, mail and so on.
We have developed a portfolio of licensable products and have
created a package which allows corporations to make use of years of
quality Apple research and development in order to quickly bring
innovative products to market. The anticipated compatibility between
licensee and Apple products should allow each participant's offerings to
take advantage of a full range of software and accessories which will be
developed by a whole community of developers including Apple, its
licensees and other third parties. Apple also plans to create a
comprehensive online business that offers a compelling range of
services to owners of licensees' products.
We intend to have a broadly accepted standard, and to work with our
licensees to bring exciting innovative products to the market. In
order to maintain the standard and grow the business for the benefits
of developers, licensees and customers we plan to maintain control of
the Newton architecture. We see this as essential to meet the needs
of--and justify the investment of--our licensees. Apple will
encourage the development of innovative products: one of the benefits
of Newton technology is its flexibility, and we want to encourage
licensees to take advantage of that in their products.
We want to create a broad, vigorous base of licensees. We are
developing industry-leading technology and we intend to support
licensees worldwide who want to take advantage of that by bringing to
their customers exciting, imaginative products.
3/25/93
Apple, the Apple logo and Classic are registered trademarks and
Newton and PowerBook are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
ARM is a trademark of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.
Siemens is a registered trademark of Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
ROLM is a registered trademark of ROLM Company.
END
