The article only mentions Palm once, as author of the bestselling software on the Newton:
>Graffiti, a simplified handwriting system written by the company Palm, which would go on to make its own PDAs.
It doesn't mention GO Corp at all, which also made a handwriting recognition system, also not very successful.
People actually bought Palms and carried them around. It fit in your shirt pocket, in case you didn't routinely wear a jacket like John Sculley. You did have to learn Graffiti, but it was very simple with instructions that fit on a sticker on the back of the device.
Handwriting recognition was still a rathole that multiple smart people fell down. Palm figured out a compromise that humans would tolerate.
It felt like living in the future walking down the street in ‘96 with my newton and accessing the internet!
My last Palm, the Tungsten T5, still works.
I have my original Apple Newton stores in my closet. This was from when I was 13-15-ish years old??
Yet I have always believed that the iPhone was "corporate karma" for Apple. The Newton did not make a splash, yet they homeruned with the iPhone. Of course, their hardwork and culture was the reason... yet still like calling it karma.
