Apple was failing. It had an ancient and crufty OS and needed to find a new OS outside the company because it failed to develop one internally at least twice. They could go with BeOS, NeXT or MkLinux (I run MkLinux on one Mac in my collection). NeXT came with Steve Jobs bundled for free.
At that time, Apple leveraged its bets making Java development a first-class citizen. It was not clear whether Objective-C would gain any foothold because it failed to get traction during its NeXT years.
Apple was failing. It had an ancient and crufty OS and needed to find a new OS outside the company because it failed to develop one internally at least twice. They could go with BeOS, NeXT or MkLinux (I run MkLinux on one Mac in my collection). NeXT came with Steve Jobs bundled for free.
At that time, Apple leveraged its bets making Java development a first-class citizen. It was not clear whether Objective-C would gain any foothold because it failed to get traction during its NeXT years.