A great find from the Apple marketing archives, showing the target market for the eMate: education.
The video may have been produced before the eMate name was finalized, because you never heard it called an eMate through the whole thing. One teacher keeps calling it “the machine,” but no one comes out and says it’s a Newton product.
“It’s definitely ageless,” one of the teacher says.
Ruggedness, flexibility, tons of uses, usability – these were the eMate’s strengths, especially as it was carried around by fifth graders. Apple had that in mind, at least, when they put together the commercial.
This is pretty cool to see. I just got an eMate in the mail a few days ago, I’m hoping to use it for taking notes in class this spring semester. Having full internet access is too much of a distraction for me! Very cool, very rugged, and I’m sure I’ll get a lot of “what’s that” comments.
Posted by Jake on December 8th, 2009.
Steve Jobs apparently loved the eMate, and didn’t want to kill it off with the rest of the Newton products. But in the end, he was convinced that it would be simpler to apply the ideas of the eMate to a Mac computer. Hence the iBook clamshell.
You can even see some of the Newton in OS X. Geez, that poofing effect looks mighty familiar.
Posted by David Kendal on December 8th, 2009.
I count the iBook G3 as my favorite Mac notebook design, and I love that the idea originates from the eMate. The toughness of both of them, too, is appealing.
Jake: enjoy your eMate! It’s a great little note-taking, journal-writing machine.
Posted by davelawrence8 on December 9th, 2009.