I took it on the chin last week for my comment that the overseas upgrade phone number for the Newton wouldn't be that useful because the Newton only understands English, thus implying that people speak English only in the U.S. Whack! My sincere apologies to every one of my net friends overseas with whom I somehow manage to communicate in email despite the massive language gap between American English and the less, or at least differently, corrupt versions of the English language. Needless to say, I had nothing of sort in mind - I was merely trying to point out a limitation of the Newton that applies to many TidBITS readers (multi-lingual folk that you are), but hasn't been mentioned much in the industry press.
Apple can't avoid the blame entirely either, as Nick Rothwell <cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk> noted: "The fact that English is spoken in other countries does seem to be a point that Apple repeatedly ignores in all its marketing and service provisions. Since Apple U.K. in particular seems incapable of selling new Macintosh models even to a buying public that actually wants to buy them, I don't see it managing to sell Newtons to a market that isn't convinced of their usefulness. Accordingly, I agree that the number of overseas Newton users is now probably low and will remain so for the foreseeable future."