Apple Newton vs Apple iPhone

Twelve years ago, nobody really understood what applications were -- when you bought a device, it usually had one function and one function only. The Newton, as far as I'm concerned, helped introduce the concept of convergence. It wasn't simply a personal organiser, it was also a full-on Works word processor, an audio recorder, a Rolodex, a clock, a calculator, an Internet browser and more.

It wasn't restricted to built-in software, either -- the Newton had access to a wealth of third-party applications and anyone who was anyone in the programming world had a stab at coding for it. There's a reason the iPhone has so many apps today -- and that's because a device 12 years its senior sat it down and showed it the way forward.

I could leave it there, but let's really take these kids to school: the Newton, a device older than Jamie Lee Curtis, has both copy and paste, a global search function and the ability to multitask. When it first emerged, the iPhone had none of these things and not even the iPhone 3GS -- the daddy of all iPhones -- can properly handle more than one application at a time.

The iPhone is the app king -- it didn't invent applications on mobile phones, but it might as well have, since it made them easy to find and install for the first time. It's true there are other phones that have great apps, but nothing pulls it off with the style and flair of the iPhone.

There's an app for that, and that's a fact, but even if you never go on the iPhone's App Store, the phone is packed with applications the Newton could only dream of. Take Google Maps, for example -- it takes the iPhone's hardware prowess in the form of its GPS and compass, stuffs it in a sausage grinder and turns out uniform meaty links of mappy goodness. I couldn't live without it.

As for multi-tasking, the iPhone can't do much of it -- but you still get your text messages while you're playing Doom, which is good enough for most people. We'd rather have a device that works quickly than one that tries to keep so many balls in the air it ends up crashing. Once again, the iPhone's inflexibility is the key to its good performance.

The majority of the Newton's apps are very handy, but it's fair to say there weren't very many of them. In contrast, the majority of iPhone apps are about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle. Their sheer number and the ease with which they can be accessed, however, means the iPhone has brought apps to the mainstream and made them cool at the same time.

Before the advent of the iPhone, people used to saunter around contentedly with mobiles that had nothing more than Snake. These days, the thought of not having a fart button, Google Maps and a virtual pint of beer would be unthinkable. For this reason, the iPhone wins this round.