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Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles in the business market.
The first spreadsheet, VisiCalc, had helped launch the Apple II as one of the earliest personal computers in business use. With IBM's entry into the market, VisiCalc was slow to respond, and when they did, they launched what was essentially a straight port of their existing system despite the greatly expanded hardware capabilities. Lotus's solution was marketed as a three-in-one integrated solution: it handled spreadsheet calculations, database functionality, and graphical charts, hence the name "1-2-3", though how much database capability the product actually had was debatable, given the sparse memory left over after launching 1-2-3. It quickly overtook VisiCalc, as well as Multiplan and SuperCalc, the two VisiCalc competitors.
Lotus 1-2-3 was the state-of-the-art spreadsheet and the standard throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, part of an unofficial set of three stand-alone office automation products that included dBase and WordPerfect, to build a complete business platform. Lotus Software had their own word processor named Lotus Manuscript, which was to some extent acclaimed in academia, but did not catch the interest of the business, nor the consumer market. With the acceptance of Windows 3.0 in 1990, the market for desktop software grew even more. None of the major spreadsheet developers had seriously considered the graphical user interface (GUI) to supplement their DOS offerings, and so they responded slowly to Microsoft's own GUI-based products Excel and Word. Lotus was surpassed by Microsoft in the early 1990s, and never recovered. IBM purchased Lotus in 1995, and continued to sell Lotus offerings, only officially ending sales in 2013.
VisiCalc was launched in 1979 on the Apple II and immediately became a bestseller. In contrast to earlier programs, VisiCalc allowed for the easy construction of free-form calculation systems for practically any purpose, limited primarily by the memory and speed of the computer. The application was so compelling that many purchased Apple II computers just to run the program. VisiCalc's runaway success on the Apple led to direct bug-compatible ports to other platforms, including Atari 8-bit computers and the Commodore PET. This included the IBM PC when it launched in 1981, and on this platform it quickly became another bestseller, with an estimated 300,000 sales in the first six months on the market.
There were well-known problems with VisiCalc, and several competitors appeared to address some of these issues. One early example was 1980's SuperCalc, which solved the problem of circular references, while a slightly later example was Microsoft Multiplan from 1981, which offered larger sheets and other improvements. However, VisiCalc continued to outsell these and all other competitors.[citation needed]
The Lotus Development Corporation was founded by Mitchell Kapor, a friend of the developers of VisiCalc who had written software for it. 1-2-3 was originally written by Jonathan Sachs, who had written two spreadsheet programs while working at Concentric Data Systems, Inc.
"1-2-3" symbolizes the software's three modules: spreadsheet, business graphics and database (replacing the originally planned word processor). While Kapor had some programming experience, he felt that his design skills were superior, and he was primarily a marketing guru. His ability to develop his product to appeal to non-technical users was one secret to its rapid success. Unlike many technologists, Kapor relied on focus-group feedback to make his user instructions more user-friendly. For example, in response to the instructions that read "Remove the protective cover and insert disc into computer", several focus-group participants tried to tear the stiff plastic envelope from the disc carrier. Kapor's recognition that highly technical instructions needed to be translated to everyday English was a strong reason for the product's popularity.
Lotus spent $1 million for advertising in January and February 1983 in The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Time, Newsweek and computer magazines. Lotus 1-2-3 was released on 26 January 1983 and immediately overtook VisiCalc in sales. Unlike Microsoft Multiplan, it stayed very close to the model of VisiCalc, including the "A1" letter and number cell notation and slash-menu structure. It was cleanly programmed, relatively bug-free, performant (as it was programmed in x86 assembly language) and wrote directly to video memory rather than using the slow DOS or BIOS text-output functions.
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Lotus 1-2-3 AI simulator
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Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles in the business market.
The first spreadsheet, VisiCalc, had helped launch the Apple II as one of the earliest personal computers in business use. With IBM's entry into the market, VisiCalc was slow to respond, and when they did, they launched what was essentially a straight port of their existing system despite the greatly expanded hardware capabilities. Lotus's solution was marketed as a three-in-one integrated solution: it handled spreadsheet calculations, database functionality, and graphical charts, hence the name "1-2-3", though how much database capability the product actually had was debatable, given the sparse memory left over after launching 1-2-3. It quickly overtook VisiCalc, as well as Multiplan and SuperCalc, the two VisiCalc competitors.
Lotus 1-2-3 was the state-of-the-art spreadsheet and the standard throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, part of an unofficial set of three stand-alone office automation products that included dBase and WordPerfect, to build a complete business platform. Lotus Software had their own word processor named Lotus Manuscript, which was to some extent acclaimed in academia, but did not catch the interest of the business, nor the consumer market. With the acceptance of Windows 3.0 in 1990, the market for desktop software grew even more. None of the major spreadsheet developers had seriously considered the graphical user interface (GUI) to supplement their DOS offerings, and so they responded slowly to Microsoft's own GUI-based products Excel and Word. Lotus was surpassed by Microsoft in the early 1990s, and never recovered. IBM purchased Lotus in 1995, and continued to sell Lotus offerings, only officially ending sales in 2013.
VisiCalc was launched in 1979 on the Apple II and immediately became a bestseller. In contrast to earlier programs, VisiCalc allowed for the easy construction of free-form calculation systems for practically any purpose, limited primarily by the memory and speed of the computer. The application was so compelling that many purchased Apple II computers just to run the program. VisiCalc's runaway success on the Apple led to direct bug-compatible ports to other platforms, including Atari 8-bit computers and the Commodore PET. This included the IBM PC when it launched in 1981, and on this platform it quickly became another bestseller, with an estimated 300,000 sales in the first six months on the market.
There were well-known problems with VisiCalc, and several competitors appeared to address some of these issues. One early example was 1980's SuperCalc, which solved the problem of circular references, while a slightly later example was Microsoft Multiplan from 1981, which offered larger sheets and other improvements. However, VisiCalc continued to outsell these and all other competitors.[citation needed]
The Lotus Development Corporation was founded by Mitchell Kapor, a friend of the developers of VisiCalc who had written software for it. 1-2-3 was originally written by Jonathan Sachs, who had written two spreadsheet programs while working at Concentric Data Systems, Inc.
"1-2-3" symbolizes the software's three modules: spreadsheet, business graphics and database (replacing the originally planned word processor). While Kapor had some programming experience, he felt that his design skills were superior, and he was primarily a marketing guru. His ability to develop his product to appeal to non-technical users was one secret to its rapid success. Unlike many technologists, Kapor relied on focus-group feedback to make his user instructions more user-friendly. For example, in response to the instructions that read "Remove the protective cover and insert disc into computer", several focus-group participants tried to tear the stiff plastic envelope from the disc carrier. Kapor's recognition that highly technical instructions needed to be translated to everyday English was a strong reason for the product's popularity.
Lotus spent $1 million for advertising in January and February 1983 in The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Time, Newsweek and computer magazines. Lotus 1-2-3 was released on 26 January 1983 and immediately overtook VisiCalc in sales. Unlike Microsoft Multiplan, it stayed very close to the model of VisiCalc, including the "A1" letter and number cell notation and slash-menu structure. It was cleanly programmed, relatively bug-free, performant (as it was programmed in x86 assembly language) and wrote directly to video memory rather than using the slow DOS or BIOS text-output functions.