NeXT Computer Inc., founded by Steve Jobs in 1985, struggled in the hardware market before focusing on software. Apple® bought the company in 1996, incorporating NeXT technologies into new products.
NeXT Computer Inc. was a manufacturer of computer hardware and software formed by Apple® co-founder Steve Jobs in 1985. Its first product was also officially known as NeXT Computer and by many called “the cube”. NeXT struggled in the hardware market for several years before porting their UNIX-based operating system to other platforms and focusing solely on software. Apple® bought the company in 1996 and a number of NeXT technologies made their way into a new generation of Apple® products.
Jobs formed NeXT Inc., later NeXT Computer Inc., after stepping down from Apple® following an internal power struggle. The company’s first product was the NeXT Computer System, a sleek cube-shaped black box made of magnesium aimed at the higher education markets. It has been classified as a “3M computer,” an unofficial workstation specification with at least one megabyte of memory, a display with a million or more pixels, and a processor capable of performing at least one million calculations per second. Early NeXT workstations did not quite meet all the criteria, but they were substantially more powerful than personal computers at the time, making them attractive to some academic and government customers.
When it was released in 1989, the NeXT computer also had a number of features that set it apart from other computers of the time. It was designed to maximize the speed of data transfer between different components and had three Motorola microprocessors: a 25 megahertz central processing unit (CPU), a floating point unit (FPU) for math calculations, and a signal processor digital (DSP) capable of producing Compact Disc (CD) quality sound. The included operating system, NeXTStep, was based on Unix® and featured a graphical user interface with full multitasking, which meant multiple programs could run simultaneously. Standard configurations did not include a hard drive but instead relied on a unique magneto-optical drive that used both lasers and magnets. An object-oriented programming environment was included, and a new graphics technology called Display PostScript made images on screen look much more like they would look when printed.
By 1993, NeXT had released a variety of additional models, including the NeXT Cube and NeXTstation, but was facing slow sales due to the relatively high cost of its hardware. The company abandoned its focus on computer hardware to focus on the NeXTStep operating system. NeXTStep was modified to work on different computer architectures and eventually evolved into the standard known as OpenStep released by NeXT and Sun in October of 1994.
NeXT ultimately failed as a commercial entity in its own right, but the company’s technology and key personnel contributed to the resurgence of Apple®, which purchased NeXT for more than US$400 million in 1996. Significant portions of OpenStep have been used as the basis for Mac OS® X, a more capable and modern operating system than previous system software released for Mac®. WebObjects®, a web application environment and server developed at NeXT, has continued to support the hugely successful iTunes® Music Store. The acquisition also brought Jobs back to Apple®, where he quickly rose to CEO and launched a number of successful products.
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