NeXT
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| NeXT Software, Inc. <tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align:center; padding:16px 0 16px 0;"></td></tr> | |
| Type | Private (now defunct) |
|---|---|
| Founded | California, United States (1985) |
| Headquarters | Redwood City, California, US
<tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th><td>Steve Jobs, Chairman and CEO |
NeXT Software, Inc. was a computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California that developed and manufactured two computer workstations during its existence, the NeXTcube and the NeXTstation. Both systems were aimed at the higher education and business markets. NeXT was founded in 1985 by Steve Jobs after his resignation from Apple Computer. In addition to its hardware, NeXT developed the NeXTSTEP operating system, later retooled as a framework capable of running on several different operating systems, competing against Windows NT and the upcoming Cairo, an object-oriented version of Windows NT. In 1993, NeXT withdrew from the hardware business and, on February 7, 1997, was bought out by Apple. Some of NeXT's software was later used as the foundation for Mac OS X.<ref>Apple Computer (February 7 1997). Apple Computer, Inc. Finalizes Acquisition of NeXT Software Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-06-25.</ref>
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] 1985-1986: Early Founding
After a successful 1984, Apple Computer struggled in 1985.<ref name="wozandjobs">Good-bye Woz and Jobs: How the first Apple era ended in 1985 (HTML). Low End Mac (2006).</ref> Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was at the time head of Apple's SuperMicro division, which was responsible for Macintosh and Lisa development. The division failed to release upgraded versions of the Macintosh and most of the Macintosh Office.<ref name="wozandjobs"/> As a result, sales plummeted,<ref>Rose, Frank (1990). West of Eden. Viking, pg. 193. ISBN 0-670-81278-1.</ref> and Apple was forced to write off millions of dollars in unsold inventory.<ref>Rose, Frank (1990). West of Eden. Viking, pg. 227. ISBN 0-670-81278-1.</ref> Apple CEO John Sculley was forced to start curbing Jobs' power at Apple, eventually removing him as head of the SuperMicro division and replacing him with Jean-Louis Gassée.<ref>Rose, Frank (1990). West of Eden. Viking, pg. 291. ISBN 0-670-81278-1.</ref> Later that year, Jobs started to regret hiring Sculley as the new CEO, and began a brief power struggle to regain control of the company. The board of directors sided with Sculley,<ref>Young, Jeffrey S., Simon, William L. (2005). iCon: Steve Jobs. John Wiley & Sons, pg. 118. ISBN 0-471-72083-6.</ref> and Jobs began an extended tour of Europe and the Soviet Union on behalf of Apple.<ref name="wozandjobs"/>
The Macintosh computer had been hugely successful on university campuses<ref name="nextbigthing">Stross, Randall (1993). Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing. Athenium, 56. ISBN 0-689-12135-0.</ref>, largely because of the Apple University Consortium<ref name="nextbigthing">Stross, Randall (1993). Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing. Athenium, 67. ISBN 0-689-12135-0.</ref>, which allowed students and institutions to buy Macintoshes at significant discounts. Jobs, in his role as chairman, visited influential university buying departments, and sometimes even influential faculty members, trying to sell them Macintoshes. One of the professors he spoke to was Paul Berg<ref name="nextbigthing">Stross, Randall (1993). Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing. Athenium, 72. ISBN 0-689-12135-0.</ref>, a Nobel Laureate, who Jobs met at dinner held in Silicon Valley to honor François Mitterrand<ref name="wozandjobs"/>. Berg was frustrated by the expense of teaching students about recombinant DNA from textbooks instead of in the wet lab. Unfortunately, the wet labs were prohibitively expensive for lower level courses<ref name="wozandjobs"/>. Berg suggested that Jobs use his influence at Apple to create a 3M workstation<ref name="wozandjobs"/> (which were named for their megabyte of RAM, megapixel display and megaflop performance) capable of running wet lab simulations in software.
Jobs, intrigued by Berg's concept for a workstation, began to contemplate starting a higher education computer company in the Fall of 1985<ref name="wozandjobs"/>. After several months of being sidelined at Apple, he resigned on Friday, September 13, 1985, telling the board of directors that his new company would not compete with Apple and might even consider licensing its designs back to Apple to market under the Macintosh brand<ref name="wozandjobs"/>.
Jobs, who was joined by former Apple employees Bud Tribble, George Crow, Rich Page, Susan Barnes and Dan’l Lewin, named his new company Next Computer, Inc. After consulting with major educational buyers from around the country (including a follow up meeting with Paul Berg),<ref name="secondcoming">Deutschman, Alan (200). Second Coming of Steve Jobs. Broadway Books, pg. 64. ISBN 0-7679-0432-X.</ref> a tentative specification was drawn up. The machine would be powerful enough to run wet lab simulations and cheap enough for Freshmen to use them in the dorms.<ref name="secondcoming"/>
Before the specifications were even finished, Apple sued NeXT for "nefarious schemes"<ref name="secondcoming">Deutschman, Alan (200). Second Coming of Steve Jobs. Broadway Books, pg. 44. ISBN 0-7679-0432-X.</ref> to take advantage of insider information its cofounders were privy to<ref name="nextbigthing">Stross, Randall (1993). Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing. Athenium, 75. ISBN 0-689-12135-0.</ref>. Steve Jobs remarked during the trial "It is hard to think that a $2 billion company with 4,300-plus people couldn't compete with six people in blue jeans."<ref name="nextbigthing"/> The suit was eventually dismissed, but was a major boon for Next's image in the computer industry.
Jobs recruited graphic designer Paul Rand in 1986 to create a brand identity for Next for $100,000. Rand created a 100 page brochure detailing everything about the brand, including the precise angle the cube logo was to be tilted (28°) and a brand new name, NeXT.<ref>Heller, Steven, Helfand, Jessica; Lois, George (2000). Paul Rand. Phaidon Press, 256. ISBN 0-7148-3994-9.</ref><ref>Paul Rand (HTML). logolog (2004).</ref> The first major outside investment was from Ross Perot, who originally saw NeXT employees and Jobs featured on The Entrepreneurs, a television show.<ref>Steve Jobs, NeXT employees. (1986). The Entrepreneurs Part 1 [TV]. </ref><ref>Steve Jobs, NeXT employees. (1986). The Entrepreneurs Part 2 [TV]. </ref> He decided to invest US$20 million in 1987 for 16% of NeXT's stock, pricing the company at $125 million. He subsequently joined the board of directors in 1988.<ref>Young, Jeffrey S., Simon, William L. (2005). iCon: Steve Jobs. John Wiley & Sons, pg. 134. ISBN 0-471-72083-6.</ref>
[edit] 1987-1993: NeXT Computer, Inc.
By mid-1986, it was clear that no existing operating system (OS) was capable of hosting the toolkit on a personal computer. This forced a change in the business plan: not only would NeXT create the toolkit, they would need to build hardware and a Unix-like Mach-based OS for the toolkit to run on. The OS would be created by a team led by Avie Tevanian, one of the Mach engineers at Carnegie Mellon University who had since joined the company. The hardware division was led by Rich Page, a former Apple employee who had led the Apple Lisa team. The name of the company was changed to NeXT Computer Inc.
NeXT's first hardware product was the NeXTcube, designed by frogdesign.<ref>frogdesign timeline: 1987 NeXT. frogdesign.</ref> It was based on the new 25 MHz Motorola 68030 Central processing unit (CPU). The Motorola 88000 RISC chip was originally considered, but the needed quantity was not available at the time. The 88110, a later chip released in 1990, was used in the NeXT RISC Workstation, an un-released project which was canceled along with all NeXT hardware projects in 1993.
The NeXTcube was slower than many Unix workstations becoming available at that time, but cost about half as much. It included 8 MB of random access memory (RAM), a 256 MB MO drive, Ethernet, NuBus and a 17" MegaPixel grayscale display measuring 1120×832 pixels. Meanwhile, a typical PC included 640 KB of RAM, the 8088, 8086, 286 or 386 CPU, either a 640×350 16-color or 720×348 monochrome display, a 10 to 20 megabyte hard drive and no networking capabilities.
At the time, most computers shipped with a hard drive between the size of 10 and 40 MB. Floppy disks were used to load the OS and additional software. This was becoming a problem, as the user needed to swap between floppy disks to load an ever-growing number of applications. At the time, a 640 MB drive cost approximately US$5000. In an attempt to solve this issue, the NeXTcube used a removable medium 256MB magneto-optical drive (MO) manufactured by Canon. These drives were relatively new to the market, the NeXTcube being the first computer to use them.
By 1987, NeXT's first factory was completed in Fremont, California; it was capable of producing 150,000 machines per year.<ref>NeXT history (French).</ref> Prototype cubes were shown to standing ovations in October 1988,<ref>PC Magazine, September 11, 1990, Volume 9, Number 15.</ref> and a slew of magazines reviewed the system - all concentrating on the hardware. By 1989, the machines were in testing, and NeXT started selling limited numbers to universities with a beta version of the OS installed. When asked if he was upset that the computer's debut was delayed by several months, Jobs responded, "Late? This computer is five years ahead of its time!"<ref>Standefer, Robert (2004). “Evolution of Mac OS X”, Macintosh Switcher's Guide. Wordware Publishing, pg.33. ISBN 1-55622-045-6.</ref>
In 1988, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates commented on the NeXTcube: "He [Steve Jobs] put a microprocessor in a box. So what?". He was later asked if he intended to develop for the NeXT platform, replying "Develop for it? I'll piss on it." <ref name="nextbigthing">Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing, by Randall Stross, 1993.</ref> In February 1989, Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy was asked what he thought of the NeXTcube, replying "it's the wrong operating system, the wrong processor, and the wrong price."<ref name="nextbigthing" />
NeXT struck a deal with US retailer BusinessLand in 1989 for them to sell NeXTcube workstations, a drastic move from NeXT's original business model to only sell directly to students and educational institutions. <ref>"Businessland Deal Seen for Next Inc.", REUTERS, March 25, 1989.</ref>
Canon invested US$100 million in 1989, a 16.67% stake.<ref>"Canon To Pay NeXT $100 million in computer workstation deal", Daily News of Los Angeles, June 13, 1989.</ref> The machines were finally released on the retail market in 1990, for the price of US$9,999. At the time Jobs was concerned that the market was quickly stratifying and the window of opportunity to introduce any new platform was rapidly closing. In June 1991, Ross Perot, NeXT's original investor, resigned from the board of directors.<ref name="nextbigthing"/>
The magneto-optical drive was expensive and had performance problems despite being faster than a floppy drive. Disks cost about US$100 each, and the drive was not sufficient to run as the primary medium running the NeXTSTEP operating system. In 1991, NeXT released the NeXTstation in an attempt to solve these problems, by replacing the magneto-optical drive with a floppy drive. The new computers were cheaper and used the newer and faster 68040 processor inside a new "pizza box" case.
The first issue of NeXTWORLD magazine debuted in 1991. It was published in San Francisco by Integrated Media, and edited by Simson Garfinkel. It was the first and only publication to discuss NeXT computers, operating system and software. Publication was ceased in 1994, after 4 volumes had been released.<ref>SERIAL ARCHIVE LISTINGS for NeXTWORLD. The Online Books Page.</ref><ref>NeXTWorld Magazines. ChannelU.</ref> A NeXTWORLD Expo followed as a developer conference, held in 1992 at the San Francisco Civic Center and in 1993 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with Steve Jobs as the keynote speaker.<ref>NeXTWORLD Expo 1992. NugUK (1992).</ref><ref>NeXTWORLD EXPO. NeXTWORLD Extra magazine (1993).</ref> NeXT sold 20,000 computers in 1992, a small number compared to their competitors. The company reported annual sales of US$140 million, encouraging Canon to invest a further $30 million to keep the company afloat.<ref>Young, Jeffrey S., Simon, William L. (2005). iCon: Steve Jobs. John Wiley & Sons, pg. 200. ISBN 0-471-72083-6.</ref>
Several developers used the NeXT platform to write programs that would make them famous. Tim Berners-Lee used a NeXTcube in 1991 to create the first web browser and web server, the beginning of the World Wide Web as it is known today.<ref>Berners-Lee, Tim. The WorldWideWeb browser (HTML).</ref> Also, in the early 1990s, John Carmack used a NeXTcube to build two of his pioneering games: Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.<ref> [January 1997] “Crossing the Bar”, NeXTSTEP Technical Review (HTML).</ref>
A number of programs shipped for NeXT computers, including the Lotus Improv spreadsheet program, WorldWideWeb, the world's first web browser, and Mathematica. The systems also shipped with a number of smaller applications built in such as the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Oxford Quotations, the complete works of William Shakespeare, and the Digital Librarian search engine to access them all.
In all, some 50,000 NeXT machines were sold.<ref>NeXT Fans Give Up the Ghost. Wired News (2005).</ref> This was a tiny segment of the market, and proved Jobs' own words prophetic. Although the lack of success by other new desktop platforms (such as the BeBox) suggests that the age of unique hardware designs was over, it is an open question as to whether the systems would have been more successful had they avoided the performance and price problems by including a hard drive in the first machines, and had found a more cost-effective RAM setup.
[edit] 1993-1996: NeXT Software, Inc.
NeXT started porting the NeXTSTEP operating system to the Intel platform in 1992. Work also began on replacing the 68000 series CPU's with the new PowerPC, a joint processor platform created by Apple, IBM and Motorola. In 1993, NeXT dropped their hardware business and re-named to NeXT Software, Inc., laying off 300 employees of 540 total employees; they also negotiated to sell the hardware business including the Fremont factory to Canon.<ref name="employees"/> Canon later pulled out of the deal. By late 1993, the Intel port of NeXTSTEP was complete, and version 3.1, also known as NeXTSTEP 486, was released. Work on the PowerPC machines was stopped along with all hardware production. Before its release, Chrysler planned to buy 3,000 copies of the NeXTSTEP 486 operating system in 1992.<ref>"Next Computer Close To a Deal With Chrysler", The San Francisco Chronicle, September 8, 1992.</ref> Also in 1993, CEO of Sun Microsystems Scott McNealy announced plans to invest US$10 million in NeXT, and use its software in future Sun systems.<ref>Business Week, December 20, 1993.</ref>
NeXTSTEP 3.x was later ported to PA-RISC and SPARC based platforms, for a total of four versions including NeXTSTEP/NeXT (for NeXT's 68k "black boxes"), NeXTSTEP/Intel, NeXTSTEP/PA-RISC and NeXTSTEP/SPARC. Although these ports were not widely used, NeXTSTEP gained popularity at institutions such as the National Reconnaissance Office, Central Intelligence Agency, First Chicago NBD, Swiss Bank Corporation, and other organizations due to its programming model.
NeXT partnered with Sun Microsystems to create OpenStep, which was NeXTSTEP without the Mach-based Unix kernel. When it was founded, NeXT originally intended to sell a toolkit running on top of other operating systems, but ventured into hardware instead. After dropping their hardware business, NeXT returned to selling a toolkit to run on other OSes. New products based on OpenStep continued to ship, including OpenStep Enterprise, a version that ran on Windows NT.
The company also launched WebObjects, a platform for building large-scale dynamic web applications. It became very successful, and quickly surpassed NeXTSTEP as NeXT's biggest money maker. Many large businesses including Dell, Disney and BBC used the WebObjects software,<ref>Evans, Johnny (June 16, 2005). Apple releases WebObjects as a free application (HTML). MacCentral.</ref> and Apple still use it for their iTunes Store in addition to the majority of their main website.<ref>Dalrymple, Jim (June 2, 2003). Apple releases WebObjects as a free application (HTML).</ref>
[edit] 1996: Acquisition by Apple
On December 20, 1996, Apple Computer announced its intention to purchase NeXT for approx. $400 million in cash (returned to the initial investors) and 1.5 million Apple shares, which went to Steve Jobs.<ref>Apple Computer (December 20 1996). Apple Computer, Inc. Agrees to Acquire NeXT Software Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-06-25.</ref> The main purpose of the acquisition was to use NeXTSTEP as a foundation to replace the outdated Mac OS. Apple preferred this move to either the pursuit of in-house Copland efforts or the purchase of BeOS.<ref>Sample Business Contracts - Apple Computer, Inc and NeXT Software, Inc. onecle (1996).</ref> Jobs returned to Apple as a consultant in 1997, and then became the interim CEO.<ref>Coventry, Joshua (2006). Beleaguered: Apple Bottoms Out, 1996-98 (HTML). Low End Mac. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.</ref> In 2000, he took the CEO position full-time.<ref>Davis, Jim; Michael Kanellos (January 5 2000). Jobs takes Apple CEO job full time (HTML). CNet. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.</ref>
He brought with him most of the NeXT executives, who replaced their Apple counterparts. Over the next four years, the NeXTSTEP operating system was ported to the PowerPC architecture, and the Intel version and the OpenStep Enterprise toolkit for Windows were kept in sync. The operating systems were code-named Rhapsody,<ref>Britton, Arlen (August 6 1997). What's NeXT? (HTML). MacObserver. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.</ref> while the toolkit for development on all platforms was given the moniker Yellow Box. Apple added many of their facilities and tools to Rhapsody, including QuickTime and ColorSync. For backwards compatibility, Apple added the Blue Box to the Mac version of Rhapsody; this allowed existing Mac applications to be run in a self-contained environment.<ref>Knight, Dan (2006-09-17). Red Box, Blue Box, Yellow Box (HTML). Low End Mac. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.</ref>
After two beta releases, Rhapsody for Intel disappeared and the PowerPC version became Mac OS X Server 1.0. Two years later, a consumer version was released as Mac OS X 10.0. The server version was brought into sync soon after. The OpenStep toolkit was renamed from Yellow Box to Cocoa. Rhapsody's Blue Box was re-named Classic Environment. At the insistence of existing Mac developers, Apple included an updated version of the original Macintosh toolbox that allowed existing Mac applications integrated access to the environment without the constraints of Blue Box; this was named Carbon. Many interface features from NeXTSTEP were carried over into Mac OS X, including the dock, the services menu, the finder's 'browser' view, the text system (NSText) and system-wide selectors for fonts and colors.
NeXTSTEP's processor-independent capabilities were completely retained in Mac OS X. Every version was secretly compiled onto both the PowerPC and Intel x86 architectures, even though only PowerPC versions were released—except for Darwin, the open sourced foundation of Mac OS X, for which both versions were released. On June 6 2005, Apple publicly announced that, starting in 2006, Macs would be based on Intel CPUs instead of PowerPCs, returning the NeXT software back to the platform to which it was ported in 1993.<ref>Apple Computer (June 6 2005). Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006. Retrieved on 2006-11-15.</ref> Apple's Intel transition was completed in August 2006.
[edit] Corporate culture
Jobs had been stymied by Apple's corporate structure and was determined to avoid the bureaucratic infighting that had led to his resignation. The changes ranged from a health insurance plan that offered benefits to not only married couples, but unmarried couples and same-sex couples to a completely new corporate nomenclature.<ref name="NeXTBigThing">Stross, Randall (1993). Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing. Athenium, 80. ISBN 0-689-12135-0.</ref> At Apple, secretaries were area associates, but Jobs took it a step further and abandoned conventional corporate structures,<ref name="NeXTBigThing"/> instead making NeXT a community with members instead of employees.<ref name="NeXTBigThing"/>
The office space and salary plans also contributed to the NeXT 'community'. Jobs found luxurious office space in Palo Alto on Deer Park road,<ref name="AppleConfidential">Linzmayer, Owen W. (2004). Apple Confidential 2.0. No Starch Press, 323. ISBN 1-59327-010-0.</ref> occupying a glass and concrete building, which featured a glass staircase by I. M. Pei.<ref name="AppleConfidential"/> The first floor was decked out with hardwood flooring and huge worktables where the workstations would be assembled. Jobs wanted to avoid the inventory errors that had partly caused his ouster from Apple, so NeXT used just in time manufacturing (JIT).<ref name="AppleConfidential"/> The company would contract out for all of the major components, such as motherboards and cases, and have the finished components shipped to the first floor for assembly. The second floor was the office space, which had an open floor plan. The only enclosed rooms were Jobs' office and a few conference rooms.<ref name="AppleConfidential"/>
As NeXT grew, and it became clear that the just in time manufacturing model would not be practical, new office space was rented on San Francisco Bay in Redwood.<ref name="NeXTBigThing"/> The space was dominated by a glass staircase with no visible supports designed by I. M. Pei. The stairs were so large that the elevators had to be removed from the building<ref name="nextbigthing"/>, rendering the second floor inaccessible. The open floor plan was retained, though it was now very luxurious, dotted with $10,000 sofas and Ansel Adams prints.<ref name="NeXTBigThing"/> On every desk, there was a prototype NeXTCube and a $450 phone that was integrated with all of the sales offices and foreign subsidiaries. Jobs even had a T1 line installed at his home so he could work from there.
There were only two different salaries at NeXT until the early 1990s.<ref name="NeXTBigThing"/> US$75,000 for team members who had joined before 1986 and $50,000 for those who joined afterward. This caused a few awkward situations where managers were paid less than their employees. Employees were given performance reviews and raises every six months because of the spartan salary plans. To foster openness, all employees had full access to the payrolls,<ref name="NeXTBigThing"/> though few employees ever took advantage of the privilege.<ref name="NeXTBigThing"/>
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Young, Jeffrey S., Simon, William L. (2005). iCon: Steve Jobs. John Wiley & Sons, 359. ISBN 0-471-72083-6.
- Deutschman, Alan (2001). The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. Broadway, 352. ISBN 0-7679-0433-8.
- Malone, Michael (1999). Infinite Loop. Currency, 608. ISBN 0-385-48684-7.
- Linzmayer, Owen W. (2004). Apple Confidential 2.0. No Starch Press, 323. ISBN 1-59327-010-0.
[edit] External links
- Steve Jobs long biography
- The Chronology of Workstation Computers
- A brief Steve Jobs biography with emphasis on his NeXT years
- Archived announcement of NeXT's acquisition by Apple
- Behind-the-scenes acquisition details
- Full acquisition/merger contract between Apple and NeXT
- The NeXTonian
- NeXT Computer Historical Site
- NeXTComputers.org
Corporate Directors: Steve Jobs | Ross Perot | John Patrick Crecine (as of 1988)
Hardware Products: NeXTstation | NeXTcube | NeXTdimension | NeXT MegaPixel Display | NeXT Laser Printer
Software Products: NeXTSTEP | OPENSTEP | WebObjects
Annual Sales: $140 million USD ( FY 1992) | Employees: 240 (1993) | Website: www.next.com (web archive)
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