Is Apple working on a Newton successor?

Rumors are surfing up that Apple (AAPL) is working hard on a revamp modern version of its classic hand held PDA, Apple, which helped spawn the PDA market with its Newton MessagePad line in the early '90s, plans to give the concept another go with a modern day reincarnation of the old fan favorite based on the company's new mutli-touch technology, AppleInsider is reporting.

The reports also claims that Apple never gave up hope for its PDA newton, and for the past 18 months or so, a small team has been developing a Multitouch PDA, building on Apple's latest Multitouch products (iPhone, iPod Touch).

With the initial iPhone now out the door and two successive models well underway in Apple's labs, it's believed to be full steam ahead for the modern day Newton project. Like iPhone and the iPod touch, the new device runs an embedded version of Apple's Mac OS X Leopard operating system.

Externally, the mutil-touch PDA has been described by sources as an ultra-thin "slate" akin to the iPhone, about 1.5 times the size and sporting an approximate 720x480 high-resolution display that comprises almost the entire surface of the unit. The device is further believed to leverage multi-touch concepts which have yet to gain widespread adoption in Apple's existing multi-touch products -- the iPhone and iPod touch -- like drag-and-drop and copy-and-paste.

Sources believe that the launch of the revamped Newton could be as early as next year's Macworld in January.

I think this is tremendous news both for Apple and for the entire industry as Apple keeps on innovating and continue to inspire the industry and come up with the next big thing.