The other way to look at it is Palm, QNX, and Linux technology never became as successful as NeXT technology in the mobile space. They could have bought those

The other way to look at it is Palm, QNX, and Linux technology never became as successful as NeXT technology in the mobile space. They could have bought those technologies and made them successful or maybe NeXTStep was the key. My observation of the smartphone market is that Moore's law always wins. Microsoft knew that from the start; they build a mobile OS (Windows CE) designed more for future devices rather than current devices (like Palm did). So ultimately when the technology matured enough, Microsoft was ready and Palm languished trying to modernize. Ultimately, Apple did one better over Microsoft and simply ported over their desktop OS to a smartphone and beat everyone.