The new pro Macs sold quite well, proving to Steve that he was right about Apple’s customer base. He knew that a lot of Mac users had refrained from buying new computers throughout 1995 and 1996, not because they wanted to switch to Windows, but because they were afraid that Apple would disappear. It was a widespread feeling within the Apple community while Cupertino kept releasing bad products and accumulating losses. When Steve Jobs came back and insufflated the company with confidence in the future, sales started rising again. So much so that at Macworld 1998, on January 8, he announced on stage that Apple was back to profitability. For the first time since 1996, it had made a $45 million profit in the last quarter of 1997.

But Apple’s biggest hit was yet to come. When Steve came back at Apple, a team was working on a so-called NC machine, for “network computer.” It was commonly thought at the time that personal computers were living their last days before their complete