A computer used during an on-stage demonstration by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1988, the NeXT Cube, will soon be auctioned by Sotheby's.
NeXT was the computer company founded by Mr Jobs shortly after he was removed from Apple in 1985 in a boardroom power struggle.
He originally sought to design a computer that would be aimed at the higher education market, and NeXT regularly consulted with university professors and board members about what the computer should include.
In what would become a pattern throughout Mr Jobs's career, NeXT fell behind schedule and his attention to detail meant the Cube's debut price ballooned to about $10,000, or about $28,000 in today's rate.
But on October 12, 1988, inside the Louise M Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, he took to the stage before a packed crowd in what would be his first major product introduction since he was ousted from Apple.
As countless books and movies have retold it, there was just one problem: the NeXT Cube was not finished yet and routinely crashed.
"I haven't done this in a few years so I'm a little nervous today," Mr Jobs told reporters, technology analysts and various dignitaries in attendance. "If you see anything you like, feel free to let me know."
When the NeXT Cube was finally shown on stage and turned on, he could be heard whispering into his microphone.
"It should be running, it ain't running, come on, come on," he said just before the computer powered up to an impressed crowd who gave several rounds of applause throughout the rest of the introduction.
Mr Jobs concluded the event by having a violinist play a duet alongside the NeXT Cube to show off the computer's audio system.
The Cube was ultimately a marketplace failure, but the technology behind it helped to give rise to the internet and even the modern Mac OS that hundreds of millions of people use each day.
Sotheby's described the device in its sales catalogue as: "Prototype NeXT Computer used by Steve Jobs on stage during the ‘NeXT Introduction,’ his return to the spotlight after having left Apple three years earlier.”
According to the auction company, the Cube being auctioned off was in the possession of Gregor Bailar, a senior staff member at NeXT from 1988 to 1992.
He was later chief information officer at Nasdaq and, according to LinkedIn, director at the National Wildlife Foundation.
Sotheby’s lists the starting bid for the NeXT Cube at $80,000. The auction will commence on July 15.
Apple bought NeXT in 1997 with hopes of making use of the company's sophisticated operating system.
The acquisition set in motion events that led to Mr Jobs's return to Apple and propelling it to unprecedented success with the iMac, iPhone and various web-based services.
A recently published book about NeXT, Steve Jobs in Exile, by journalist Geoffrey Cain, sheds light on the Apple co-founder's turbulent time at the helm of his post-Apple company.
In the book, Mr Cain spoke to people involved in a news conference where the technology entrepreneur showed off NeXT software, WebObjects, by ordering a pizza over the internet.
“Steve would be the first person to order pizza on the system,” Cain writes. NeXT had invited journalists to watch it all unfold, but there had been uncertainty over whether any would show up.
“As surprised as he was to see the press, the press was surprised to see a real delivery driver appearing from the wings,” Cain explains.
British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee used a NeXT computer to create the first incarnation of the World Wide Web.
