NeXT introduced the NeXT Computer in 1988 after Steve Jobs left Apple.
Jobs founded NeXT in 1985 with several former Apple employees. The company targeted higher education and business users with powerful workstations that combined distinctive industrial design with an object-oriented operating system. The first NeXT Computer was presented at a launch event in 1988 and became known informally as the NeXT Cube because of its black, cubic enclosure.
NeXT’s hardware sales were limited, but its software became historically important. NeXTSTEP provided the foundation for the operating systems Apple later developed after acquiring NeXT in 1997. The technology ultimately contributed to macOS, iOS, and other Apple platforms.
The NeXT Computer should not be confused with the later NeXTstation, a lower-cost workstation. NeXT’s importance in Silicon Valley culture comes less from mass-market sales than from its influence on Apple’s modern software architecture and Jobs’s return to Apple.