New York Ð An unauthorized business history of NeXT by Randall Stross, called Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing, was scheduled to be released by Macmillan Publishing under the Atheneum imprint on November 29.
The book traces the NeXT story from its roots in Apple Computer through the discontinuation of hardware in the February. It includes detailed accounts of NeXT's relationships with Canon, Businessland, and IBM, as well as analyses of NeXT's sales and financial results.
"I found it interesting because I have been following Steve Jobs for several years, and there seems to be a lot of good information about him in the book," said Terry McDonald, editor in chief of Sports Afield magazine and former editor in chief of Esquire, who read a preview copy of the book.
Stross is a professor of international business at San Jose State University and has been working on the book for the past three years. Rebuffed in his attempts to work directly with NeXT, Stross relied on interviews with former NeXT employees, some sources inside the company, and published media reports about NeXT. There is also substantial coverage from the perspective of Sun, NeXT's former arch rival.
The 352-page book will be issued in hardback for $24. NeXT declined to make any comment about the book.