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Hi Gyffes,
I admit my general ignorance of the history of Apple (I never even owned a Mac or a Newton). And perhaps it is all Steve Job's fault that Apple has never focused its R&D on the Newton and its possible offsprings. But the fact remains that Apple management decided against the Newton and thus failed to seize a gigantic future PDA market. Sony, on the hand, did the right thing by licensing PalmOS and focusing on the kind of PDA hardware never seen before.
You rightfully say that the Newton created the PDA market. But the same way I can argue that Sony's Walkman created the market for mobile audio devices.
Horwitz disqualifies himself by generalizing Sony's (possibly failing) attempt to enter the digital audio-player market: his claim that "Sony's record with personal computer software has been terrible" is an ignorant insult on Sony's legacy of developing innovative audio and video products.
When I was still a student in the US (here in Europe, I only know a single person who uses a Mac - happens to be one of my best friends), I had several colleagues who were so fanatically devoted to Apple (with a hint of elitist attitudes I may say) that I couldn't resist but think of the old saying "Arguing with Apple fanatics is like wrastlin' with a pig. You get dirty and the pig likes it."
Don't get me wrong. I have no bad feelings for Apple. I like their style. I like the fact that OS X Panther is based on Freebsd, my favorite OS. But I don't like the way how Apple users tend to disqualify themselves by generalizing too much about their competitors' weaknesses without noticing that Apple is far from perfect either.
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