The problem with the "$150 million investment saving Apple" argument is that Apple had $1.2 billion cash on hand. Personally, I think it was Microsoft's commit

The problem with the "$150 million investment saving Apple" argument is that Apple had $1.2 billion cash on hand. Personally, I think it was Microsoft's commitment to keep Office for Mac (as well as building/bundling IE for Mac - which at the time, was a damn good browser!) that "rescued" Apple to a certain degree (it definitely made it a viable machine for the education market!) Honestly though, I think after Steve Jobs returned and killed off the clones (and released the new iMac), Apple would have succeeded (or at least, not "died") even without Microsoft's investment --- mostly due to how loyal the users are. No clue how successful they would have been though, without IE/Office (I doubt MS would have killed Office though - considering it was still generating cash for them...)