General Magic has a quiet fame in Silicon Valley: Forbes calls it "the most important dead company in Silicon Valley" and New York Magazine says it "invented the iPhone — two decades too early." The startup, then working on a precursor to the smartphone with an OS called "Magic Cap," was met with competition when Apple released its Newton PDA in 1993.
In an interview with New York Magazine, General Magic cofounder Andy Hertzfeld characterized the Newton as "an existential threat" and "a real betrayal" on the part of Apple CEO John Sculley, who was on General Magic's board of directors.
General Magic closed operations in 2002, but it brought together some of the 21st century's giants of Silicon Valley early in their careers. Employees included: Megan Smith (former VP at Google, former US CTO under President Barack Obama), Kevin Lynch (former CTO at Adobe, now VP of Technology at Apple), and of course, Andy Rubin.
The documentary "General Magic" premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.
Sources: Business Insider, New York Times, Forbes, New York Magazine, Tribeca, General Magic Documentary
Film makers @SarahKerruish & @Matt_Maude with Mike Stern and Dee Gardetti introducing the movie to an excited audience #generalmagicmovie pic.twitter.com/dNMVlnxayH
— General Magic (@generalmagicmov) July 27, 2018