NeXT

In 1985, Steve Jobs resigned from Apple Inc. after a power struggle with the company’s board of directors. He then founded a new computer company, NeXT Inc., with the goal of building the “perfect computer” for education and business users. The NeXT Computer was finally released in 1988, and although it was not a commercial success, it proved to be a revolutionary product that inspired a new saturday” title=”Next Saturday”>generation of computer designers.

The NeXT Computer was innovative in many ways. It was one of the first computers to use a high-resolution black-and-white display, which made it ideal for desktop publishing and graphic design. It featured a unique optical disk drive that could store up to 256 megabytes of data, which was several times more than most other computers of the time. The NeXT Computer also had a powerful operating system, called NeXTSTEP, which was based on the BSD UNIX system and included advanced features such as object-oriented programming and networking.

One of the most impressive aspects of the NeXT Computer was its hardware design. The computer was housed in a sleek, black cube that was made from magnesium and had no external screws or cables. It was also the first computer to use a fanless cooling system, which made it very quiet and reliable. The NeXT Computer was so well-designed that it was featured in a permanent exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Despite its impressive features and design, the NeXT Computer was not a commercial success. It was priced much higher than other computers of the time, and its high-end features made it more suitable for niche markets such as academia and research. The company struggled to find customers and only sold about 50,000 units in total.

However, the impact of the NeXT Computer was far-reaching. The development of the NeXTSTEP operating system led to the creation of several new technologies that would become ubiquitous in the computer industry. For example, the NeXTSTEP user interface included features such as drag-and-drop and dockable menus, which would later be incorporated into the Macintosh operating system by Apple. The NeXT Computer was also the first computer to be used by the World Wide Web inventor, Tim Berners-Lee.

The failure of the NeXT Computer as a commercial product led to the company shifting its focus to software development. NeXT Inc. developed several software products, including WebObjects, a web application development platform that was used by companies such as Disney, Dell, and Boeing. In 1996, Apple Inc. acquired NeXT Inc. and its software products for $429 million, and Steve Jobs returned to Apple as a consultant. The acquisition of NeXT Inc. helped Apple to modernize its operating system and pave the way for the development of Mac OS X, which was based on the NeXTSTEP operating system.

In conclusion, the NeXT Computer was a groundbreaking product that was ahead of its time. Although it was not a commercial success, it paved the way for several new technologies and helped to shape the future of the computer industry. The elegant design of the NeXT Computer still stands as a testament to the vision and ingenuity of Steve Jobs and his team at NeXT Inc.