Apple Hosts Successful Developers Conference

The city of San Francisco served as the backdrop in September as Apple gave several hundred developers from around the world a chance to peek into the company’s vision of the near future for the Newton platform. The conference, entitled “Turn on the Light” was Apple’s second Newton Platform Development Conference and featured an overview of several new developments related to communications, developer tools, and Mac and Windows desktop integration, among others.

Most significantly, Apple also announced that it is abandoning its one percent royalty fee on applications developed for the Newton platform. This move was welcomed by existing and new developers, Apple included, as the program was likely more of an administrative nuisance for Apple than a real money maker.

Featured at the conference was a keynote by Apple president and CEO, Michael Spindler, who took the opportunity to describe ways in which Newton technology fits into Apple’s product mix and corporate strategy. Likewise, recently returned Guy Kawasaki, now an Apple Fellow, evangelized about the range of software available for the platform, now estimated to be over one thousand titles when commercial, shareware, and vertical applications are taken into account.

The conference, which featured a number of technical sessions with Newton engineers including a hands-on testing and programming lab, stayed open until 2 am to match the nocturnal nature of the developer dominated audience. This forum provided an opportunity for developers to test new and existing code while still at the conference.

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