The merger converted Steve Jobs from Chairman and CEO of NeXT to an advisory role at Apple, the company he had co-founded in 1976; and it promised to port NeXT's operating system to Macintosh hardware, combine it with the legacy application layer of Mac OS, and yield Mac OS X.
The consortium had earned more than $50 million on computers by February 1984. Jobs visited university departments and faculty members to sell Macintosh.
and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American computer and software company founded in 1985 by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs.
In following decades, the new operating system was renamed OS X and then later macOS and was adapted into the embedded multimedia platforms of iOS, watchOS, and tvOS to serve as the basis of iPhone and iPad. ==History== ===Background=== In 1985, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs led Apple's SuperMicro division, which was responsible for the development of the Macintosh and Lisa personal computers.
Berg suggested that Jobs should use his influence at Apple to create for higher education a "3M computer", a term for a workstation with one megabyte of random-access memory (RAM), a one-megapixel display, and one megaFLOPS of CPU performance. Jobs was intrigued by Berg's concept of a workstation and contemplated starting a higher education computer company in late 1985, amid increasing turmoil at Apple.
Apple's chief executive officer (CEO) John Sculley ousted Jobs from his day-to-day role at Apple, replacing him with Jean-Louis Gassée in 1985.
The board of directors sided with Sculley while Jobs took a business trip to Western Europe and the Soviet Union on behalf of Apple. ===Original NeXT team=== After several months of being sidelined, Jobs resigned from Apple on September 13, 1985.
Nevertheless, their innovative object-oriented NeXTSTEP operating system and development environment (Interface Builder) were highly influential. The first major outside investment was from Ross Perot, who invested after seeing a segment about NeXT on a 1986 PBS documentary titled Entrepreneurs.
Jobs remarked, "It is hard to think that a $2 billion company with 4,300-plus people couldn't compete with six people in blue jeans." The suit was eventually dismissed before trial. In 1986, Jobs recruited the famous graphic designer Paul Rand to create a brand identity for $100,000.
Team members who joined before 1986 were paid and those who joined afterward were paid .
In 1987, he invested $20 million in exchange for 16 percent of NeXT's stock and subsequently joined the board of directors in 1988. NeXT later released much of the NeXTSTEP system as a programming environment standard called OpenStep.
NeXT's first factory was completed in Fremont, California, in 1987.
NeXT's first workstation is officially named the NeXT Computer, nicknamed "the cube" because of its distinctive magnesium cubic case, designed by Apple IIc case designer Frogdesign in accordance with an edict from Jobs. The original design team had anticipated completing the computer in early 1987 to be ready for sale for by midyear.
NeXT introduced the first NeXT Computer in 1988, and the smaller NeXTstation in 1990.
In 1987, he invested $20 million in exchange for 16 percent of NeXT's stock and subsequently joined the board of directors in 1988. NeXT later released much of the NeXTSTEP system as a programming environment standard called OpenStep.
Davies Symphony Hall, in San Francisco, California, on October 12, 1988.
Object-oriented programming and graphical user interfaces became more common after the 1988 release of the NeXTcube and NeXTSTEP.
The luncheon speaker was Steve Jobs. The first machines were tested in 1989, after which NeXT started selling limited numbers to universities with a beta version of the NeXTSTEP operating system installed.
In 1989 a typical new PC, Macintosh, or Amiga computer included a few megabytes of RAM, a 640×480 16-color or a 320x240 4,096-color display, a 10- to 20-megabyte hard drive, and few networking capabilities.
The drive's limitations of speed and capacity make it insufficient as the primary medium running the NeXTSTEP operating system. In 1989, NeXT struck a deal for former Compaq reseller Businessland to sell the NeXT Computer in select markets nationwide.
Businessland founder David Norman predicted that sales of the NeXT Computer would surpass sales of Compaq computers after 12 months. In 1989, Canon invested US$100 million in NeXT, giving it a 16.67 percent stake and making NeXT worth almost $600 million.
NeXT introduced the first NeXT Computer in 1988, and the smaller NeXTstation in 1990.
Canon also served as NeXT's distributor in Japan. The NeXT Computer was first released on the retail market in 1990, for .
NeXT's original investor Ross Perot resigned from the board of directors in June 1991 to dedicate more time to Perot Systems, a Plano, Texas-based systems integrator. ====Second generation==== NeXT released a second generation of workstations in 1990.
Tim Berners-Lee used a NeXT Computer in 1990 to create the first Web browser and Web server; accordingly, NeXT was instrumental in the development of the World Wide Web. NeXT systems were used by professors for scientific and engineering applications, and for developing finished newspaper layouts using News.
George Mason University in the early 1990s had a set of NeXT workstations for publishing, as well as Silicon Graphics for CAD/GL and Mathematica for astrophysics.
There were only two different salaries at NeXT until the early 1990s.
NeXT's original investor Ross Perot resigned from the board of directors in June 1991 to dedicate more time to Perot Systems, a Plano, Texas-based systems integrator. ====Second generation==== NeXT released a second generation of workstations in 1990.
The systems were bundled with a number of smaller built-in applications, such as the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Oxford Quotations, the complete works of William Shakespeare, and the Digital Librarian search engine to access them. ===1993–96: NeXT Software, Inc.=== NeXT started porting the NeXTSTEP operating system to IBM PC compatible computers using the Intel 80486 processor in late 1991 because of a change in business strategy to withdraw from the hardware business entirely.
Its second campus in Redwood City was occupied by ApniCure and OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. The first issue of NeXTWORLD magazine was printed in 1991.
A NeXTWORLD Expo followed as a developer conference, held in 1991 and 1992 at the San Francisco Civic Center and in 1993 and 1994 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with Steve Jobs as the keynote speaker. ==Legacy== Though not very profitable, the company had a wide-ranging impact on the computer industry.
The technologically successful platform was often held as the trendsetter when other companies started to emulate the success of NeXT's object-oriented system. Widely seen as a response to NeXT, Microsoft announced the Cairo project in 1991; the Cairo specification included similar object-oriented user interface features for a coming consumer version of Windows NT.
The new computers were cheaper and faster than their predecessors, with the new Motorola 68040 processor. In 1992, NeXT launched "Turbo" variants of the NeXTcube and NeXTstation, with a 33 MHz 68040 processor and the maximum RAM capacity increased to 128 MB.
NeXT sold 20,000 computers in 1992, and NeXT counted upgraded motherboards on back order as system sales.
A demonstration of the port was displayed at the NeXTWorld Expo in January 1992.
Prior to this release, Chrysler planned to buy 3,000 copies in 1992. NeXTSTEP 3.x was later ported to PA-RISC and SPARC-based platforms, for a total of four versions: NeXTSTEP/NeXT (for NeXT's own hardware), NeXTSTEP/Intel, NeXTSTEP/PA-RISC, and NeXTSTEP/SPARC.
A NeXTWORLD Expo followed as a developer conference, held in 1991 and 1992 at the San Francisco Civic Center and in 1993 and 1994 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with Steve Jobs as the keynote speaker. ==Legacy== Though not very profitable, the company had a wide-ranging impact on the computer industry.
NeXT withdrew from the hardware business in 1993 to concentrate on marketing OPENSTEP for Mach, its own OpenStep implementation, for several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Some IBM PC clone vendors offered somewhat customized hardware solutions that were delivered running NeXTSTEP on Intel, such as the Elonex NextStation and the Canon object.station 41. NeXT withdrew from the hardware business in 1993 and the company was renamed NeXT Software, Inc.; consequently, 300 of the 540 staff employees were laid off.
CEO of Sun Microsystems Scott McNealy announced plans to invest $10 million in 1993 and use NeXT software in future Sun systems.
A NeXTWORLD Expo followed as a developer conference, held in 1991 and 1992 at the San Francisco Civic Center and in 1993 and 1994 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with Steve Jobs as the keynote speaker. ==Legacy== Though not very profitable, the company had a wide-ranging impact on the computer industry.
By 1994, Microsoft and NeXT were collaborating on a Windows NT port of OpenStep which was never released. By 1993, Taligent was considered by the press to be a competitor in objects and operating systems even without any product release, with NeXT being a main point of comparison.
The open floor plan was retained, although furnishings became luxurious, with $5,000 chairs, $10,000 sofas, and Ansel Adams prints. NeXT's first campus in Palo Alto was subsequently occupied by Internet Shopping Network (a subsidiary of Home Shopping Network) in 1994, and later by SAP AG.
The publication was discontinued in 1994 after only four volumes.
A NeXTWORLD Expo followed as a developer conference, held in 1991 and 1992 at the San Francisco Civic Center and in 1993 and 1994 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with Steve Jobs as the keynote speaker. ==Legacy== Though not very profitable, the company had a wide-ranging impact on the computer industry.
By 1994, Microsoft and NeXT were collaborating on a Windows NT port of OpenStep which was never released. By 1993, Taligent was considered by the press to be a competitor in objects and operating systems even without any product release, with NeXT being a main point of comparison.
Eventually WebObjects was used solely to power Apple's iTunes Store and most of its corporate website, until the software was discontinued. ===1996–97: purchase by Apple=== Apple Computer announced the intention to acquire NeXT on December 20, 1996.
WebObjects never became very popular because of its initial high price of $50,000, but it remains a prominent early example of a Web server based on dynamic page generation rather than on static content. Apple purchased NeXT in 1997 for $429 million and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock.
The deal was finalized on February 7, 1997, bringing Jobs back to Apple as a consultant, who was later appointed as interim CEO.
For backward compatibility Apple added the "Blue Box" to Rhapsody, allowing existing Mac applications to be run in a self-contained cooperative multitasking environment. A server version of the new operating system was released as Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999, and the first consumer version, Mac OS X 10.0, in 2001.
In 2000, Jobs took the CEO position as a permanent assignment, holding the position until his resignation on August 24, 2011; Jobs died six weeks later on October 5, 2011 from complications of a relapsed pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. Several NeXT executives replaced their Apple counterparts when Steve Jobs restructured the company's board of directors.
For backward compatibility Apple added the "Blue Box" to Rhapsody, allowing existing Mac applications to be run in a self-contained cooperative multitasking environment. A server version of the new operating system was released as Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999, and the first consumer version, Mac OS X 10.0, in 2001.
Some of NeXTSTEP's interface features are used in Mac OS X, including the Dock, the Services menu, the Finder's "Column" view, and the Cocoa text system. NeXTSTEP's processor-independent capabilities were retained in Mac OS X, leading to both PowerPC and Intel x86 versions (although only PowerPC versions were publicly available before 2006).
Apple moved to Intel processors by August 2006. ==Corporate culture and community== Jobs created a different corporate culture at NeXT in terms of facilities, salaries, and benefits.
In 2000, Jobs took the CEO position as a permanent assignment, holding the position until his resignation on August 24, 2011; Jobs died six weeks later on October 5, 2011 from complications of a relapsed pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. Several NeXT executives replaced their Apple counterparts when Steve Jobs restructured the company's board of directors.
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