Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Ever since then-interim CEO Steve Jobs killed the Newton project "to focus all of (Apple's) efforts in one direction," a steady stream of rumors has extended hope that a handheld Mac would someday emerge from the ashes of the MessagePad 2100. As we now know, a team of developers at 1 Infinite Loop has indeed been working on a tablet-style touchscreen device. And, just as the Newton did (and as the included "Welcome to Newton" video promised), the upcoming device "helps you as you capture, organize, and communicate your ideas and information."

While the physical similarities between the Newton and the iPhone are few, Steve's Mac Expo keynote in January bears a likeness to the address his predecessor, John Sculley, gave when he took the wraps off the Newton. Both devices represented years of sweat, tears, and scrapped prototypes. Both were billed as revolutionary. And both generated some serious buzz long before they were scheduled to ship.

But is the iPhone doomed to suffer the same fate as the Newton MessagePad, which never really took off? Or did Apple leave its troubles behind with the stylus?

THE WRITE STUFF

In its promotional video, the Newton's "real power" was described as "the ability to turn your handwriting into text." More than its email client and onboard software, everyone wanted to test the Newton's electronic ink. But the MessagePad's "best guess" handwriting recognition was often comically wrong. The device became the punch line for some high-profile jokes - like on The Simpsons, when bully Dolph writes "Beat up Martin" on his Newton and it translates into "Eat up Martha."

Of course, the iPhone doesn't bother with a stylus or handwriting recognition at all. Instead, the phone has a more muscular version of the Newton's onscreen keyboard - a "missed opportunity," according to Albert Muniz, an associate professor of marketing at DePaul University. "The (handwriting recognition) on the first-generation Newton was pretty shaky," Muniz explains. "However, subsequent iterations had great handwriting recognition. I truly believe this was an important feature in generating such loyalty."

What it hasn't yet built in niche popularity and nostalgia, the iPhone may be able to gain in modern practicality. Its QWERTY soft keyboard seems to strike a balance between the potential of word-based recognition and the simplicity of typing.

Walter Smith, who designed the original NewtonScript language for the MessagePad, believes "people have adapted amazingly well" to typing on miniature keypads, but also finds handwriting recognition to be superior - at least for some. "A word-based recognizer might have 99 percent accuracy, but a user might prefer a character-based recognizer with 95 percent accuracy because its mistakes are 'smaller.' They correct single characters instead of rewriting whole words," he says. Still, in today's text-messaging culture, Apple was smart to toss the stylus.

FOR ASSISTANCE, DIAL OUTSIDE

When John Sculley demonstrated the 1-pound Newton back in May 1992, it was a stunning mix of form and function designed to "help you work smarter." Like the iPhone, the Newton made instant headlines and, despite long shipping delays, created a healthy buzz of anticipation.

Once it hit shelves, however, the Newton wasn't all Apple's genius. Many of the MessagePad's best functions were conceived outside Apple - something that looks less likely for the iPhone

Smith, who left Apple and the Newton group two years before the device's demise, recalls that when designing the Newton OS, his team "didn't know of another option" besides "the traditional OS platform model" of built-in and third-party apps. He believes that with the iPhone "there will have to be third-party apps at some fairly general level just to be competitive with other smartphones." Muniz, who has researched and written about the Newton community extensively, agrees. "The Newton community has done a great job of perpetuating the product."

CONTROLLING THE TONE

With the iPhone, Apple is entering a very crowded market, standing on the shoulders of the RIM BlackBerry and Palm Treo to find its footing. With more than 200 new patents protecting its underlying technology and features, Jobs made it abundantly clear during his Mac Expo keynote that he feels the iPhone has no peers.

It's interesting that the iPhone's most intuitive features - one-click dialing, "visual voicemail," and rich HTML email - sound a lot like the Newton's original objectives, outlined in the 1993 product announcement: "The Newton MessagePad can find a phone number and dial the phone for you, fax a note, format a letter, and even set up a lunch appointment."

But there's no denying that the iPhone does all of these things better and cleaner than before. Even screen rotation, a feature that eventually popped up in the Newton OS, works more fluidly and intelligently on the iPhone.

It remains to be seen whether Apple can keep up the pace on its own: "The advantage of opening products like the iPhone to innovation by users and other non-Apple developers is steadily increasing," says Eric Von Hippel, author of Democratizing Innovation and head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at MIT. "Apple is giving up this advantage to maintain control.

The Newton may have been doomed by its stubborn price point (the first one was $499, and the most advanced MessagePad 2100 cost $999) and overambitious roadmap, but the creativity of outside developers kept it on life support long after Apple tried to kill it. The iPhone's multi-touch technology, on the other hand, is far more advanced and versatile than the MessagePad's tap-and-scribble method. And Apple has proved that "the iPod model of controlling everything," as Smith describes it, works just fine.

But Apple can't afford to squander the hype it's built around the iPhone. When the Newton finally launched, it represented nearly seven years and hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D. These days, Apple is smarter, switching chips when the PowerPC didn't deliver and carefully crafting the iPod into a cultural touchstone.

Even so, Apple knows how important the iPhone is to the company's continued success. Steve Jobs acknowledged this when he placed its introduction alongside the Mac and the iPod on the scale of revolutionary products that have changed the industry. Not surprisingly, he left the Newton off that list, but it seems that the iPhone owes its distant cousin a bit of gratitude, if not for paving the way, then certainly for illuminating the potential roadblocks.

Do you have an opinion about the Newton or the iPhone? What are your predictions about the iPhone's future - or lack of it? Share your thoughts with the world in the "Comments" section, below.