"Announced in August 1993, the Newton Message Pad was Apple's first completely new product in many years. Indeed, it represented Apple's entry into (and perhaps creation of) an entirely new market: personal digital assistants. The PDA market was barely present when the Newton was released, but other companies were working on similar devices. The Newton Message Pad featured a variety of personal-organization applications, such as an address book, a calendar, notes, along with communications capabilities such as faxing and e-mail. It featured a pen-based interface which used a word-based, trainable handwriting recognition engine. Unfortunately, this engine had been developed by a third party developer, and was notoriously difficult to use. While later Newton models would show improved hand-writing recognition, the Newton's reputation for poor recognition would haunt it for years to come. It sold for $699." (photo credit: EveryMac.com)

CPU
CPU: ARM 610
CPU Speed: 20 MHz
ROM: 4 MB
Onboard RAM: 640 kB
RAM slots: 0
Maximum RAM: 640 kB
Expansion Slots: 1 Type II PCMCIA

Video
Screen: reflective LCD
Max Resolution: 1 bit 336x240

Input/Output
Serial: 1
Speaker: mono

Networking
Modem: 9600 bps, optional

Miscellaneous
Codename: Newton
Dimensions: 7.25" H x 4.50" W x 0.75" D
Weight: 0.9 lbs.
Minimum OS: Newton OS 1.0
Maximum OS: Newton OS 1.11
Introduced: August 1993
Terminated: March 1994

This byte of Apple's history from Wired's, "30 Years of Apple Products."