NeXT's black cube workstations never achieved mass commercial success, but their object-oriented software environment proved hugely influential—Tim Berners-Lee built the first web browser on a NeXT machine, and NeXT's technology became the foundation for Mac OS X after Apple acquired the company in 1997, effectively bringing Jobs back to Apple.
Jobs had been pushed out of Apple, the company he co-founded, in a boardroom struggle with CEO John Sculley earlier that year. Rather than retreat, he took several Apple employees with him and poured his fortune into a new venture aimed squarely at higher education and technical markets—a deliberate pivot from Apple's consumer focus.
NeXT's black magnesium-cased cube, released years later, became legendary for its elegant industrial design and its advanced object-oriented operating system, NeXTSTEP. It never sold in large numbers—education budgets couldn't support its premium price—but it attracted a devoted following among programmers and researchers, including Tim Berners-Lee, who used a NeXT workstation in 1990 to build the first web browser and server.
The company's real payoff came in 1997: struggling Apple, desperate for a modern operating system, acquired NeXT for $429 million, and Steve Jobs walked back into the company he'd been exiled from. NeXTSTEP became the bones of Mac OS X, and Jobs, now indispensable again, soon reclaimed the CEO's chair, setting up Apple's extraordinary second act with the iMac, iPod, and iPhone.
Key people: Steve Jobs