QUESTION · ARCHIVE

What role did the Newton's patents play in iPhone development and Apple's survival?

ASKED BY · Unknown · 19 SEP 2026 · ▶ 00:57:45

THE PANEL'S ANSWER
Guy

Steve Jobs hated Newton but Newton's patents from Samsung disputes became iPhone patents, preventing Apple's demise. ARM technology sold for $800M kept Apple afloat; extensive documentary covers this overlooked history.

Summarised by AI from what the panel said. Watch the moment for the full answer.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

From the transcript.

Machine-transcribed, so it may contain errors. Every timestamp opens the episode at that second.

57:44I mean, Apple has historically never been first. But what they do is they kind of just wait things out to make sure that the technology, like if they're going to do something, they're going to wait until they have something that they think is considerably a better user experience than what is already out there like they're not going to do something unless they

58:04have a contribution that they think is actually worth doing uh go ahead guy yeah one more thing on that note uh so samsung and apple had some patent disputes back in the um 90s uh and david Brady just sent me a link to this video that he's like, is this Adam Tao in it? It's a Newton video. And one of the things that the guy says in this video, it's like an hour long documentary. He said,

58:30Steve Jobs hated the Newton, but it was the Newton that saved Apple because the patent disputes with Samsung. Those patents were already for the Newton that became the iPhone. So the iPhone wouldn't exist without the Newton patents. And then the ARM technology, the actual chips in there, They sold those stock for $800 million, and that's what kept Apple afloat. So I'll put a link to that documentary in the chat.

58:54It's fascinating to watch and know about this story behind everything. Yeah, and it looks like the sensor John Walls posted that the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max feature a 48-megapixel main camera sensor measuring 1 over 1.28 inches, which is 71.5 millimeters squared. There we go. All right. I think that is it for today's show. Thanks to all the panelists for coming in this morning and bringing your different perspectives and answering these questions very thoroughly.

59:27We really appreciate it. And of course, to you. Yes, you. I'm looking at you right now. You, the producers, you put in these questions. We wouldn't have a show without you. And you always come through for us. Thank you very much. And of course, to the back end crew that puts the show on all the different roles that, you know, it takes to put on a show of this kind of level of quality.

59:48It's a big undertaking. A lot of people don't realize that. And until you're behind the scenes, you don't know. So thank you. We couldn't do the show without you. And if we were to have traveled around the world to answer all these questions virtually, according to the famous Talalik traversal, that would have been 16,000 miles. That's 25,000 kilometers and 123 million bananas for scale.

1:00:11This was episode 2370. If you got a little time after the show, you can always jump into the after hours. So we'll see you there. Bye. Happy trails. Vladimir will be looking in. Good show, everyone. Like he has nothing better to do. he's probably in his garden I've heard he likes gardening he enjoys watching the cows outside have you ever seen that photo

1:00:47of Steven Seagal standing next to Putin and he's like he's in his garden and he's like eating a carrot it's the weirdest photo what's up back I gotta go look that up I think it's a video Putin just hands him the carrot and he's like. And your YouTube feed will be full of Steven Seagal movies from here on out. Yeah, actually, I better use a brave incognito.

1:01:18Like the first three Steven Seagal movies are fantastic. Come on. Above the Law. Above the Law. Oh, man. Come on, man. Those are great movies. All right. We'll see you. See you. Guys. See you. Thank you.

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What role did the Newton's patents play in iPhone development and Apple's survival? — Office Hours Global