Tech District · VIDEO ESSAY

NeXT: The $6,500 Computer Nobody Wanted That Eventually Became the iPhone

NeXT was one of the most ambitious computer companies of the 1980s—and one of the most expensive failures of Steve Jobs’ career. After leaving Apple, Jobs set out to build the computer of the future. The result was the $6,500 NeXT Computer: beautifully designed, technologically advanced, and far too expensive for most buyers. Yet the software and ideas developed at NeXT would later become the foundation of Mac OS X, iOS, and ultimately the modern iPhone. This is the fascinating story of how a computer almost nobody bought ended up shaping billions of devices.