You may have hinted at it, but I think Apple's subsequent turnaround after acquiring Next was mainly due to their founder, Steve Jobs, coming back to Apple.
Jobs helped enormously, of course, but if Apple was still trying to sell classic MacOS in 2005 I'm not sure even Steve Jobs could have kept them afloat long enough to ship an iPhone.
That's true, but most keep forgetting that even before his comeback, Apple was very close to filing for bankruptcy and who knows what would have happened without the intervention from Gates. Microsoft was the only juggernaut who's fate was never doubted in the 1980s - 1990s.
NeXT hardware also failed but was the rightful choice for Apple over Be due to getting NeXTSTEP and Jobs again. But even after the war is over, we're now all generals.
