Lotus 1-2-3: 30th anniversary of the coup

Before Google began to massively create mobile and web versions of various office applications, the market was conquered by Microsoft. It was Microsoft, which established a real computer paradigm with a variety of programs included in Microsoft’s Windows, which made computers a powerful and affordable personal tool. But even earlier the market was dominated by Lotus Development Corp c eë Lotus 1-2-3, released January 26, 1983. Next - a little history and advertising office suite in which everyone dances.

Why 1-2-3?

And because this software included tools for working with three types of elements: spreadsheets, databases and graphics. In many ways, this 30-year-old software package laid the foundations for this type of software, which in our time has already begun to “conquer the clouds”: Google Docs, Apple iWorks and MS Office 365.
But, nevertheless, Lotus was not the first in its niche. This fame belongs to VisiCalc , designed by Dan Bricklin for Apple II. The legend about the creation of which is not particularly original and says that it was created by a student who was too lazy to read the data manually.

What did the Lotus bring?

')
When developing the Lotus 1-2-3, Mitchell Kepor was guided precisely by a 16-bit IBM processor, and not a more common 8-bit processor, since believed that IBM would soon make 16-bit processors a recognized standard. On advertising the product went 1 million dollars, but the expense paid off very quickly. And this is at the cost of one copy at 495 dollars. For 5 months, there were already 60 thousand buyers.
While everyone was happy about the main “killer feature” VisiCalc - the ability to make at least some tables, Lotus went further and with great trepidation reacted to the form of the already printed file, increased the number of formats of numbers, allowed to change the width of columns, added long labels, and the hardest thing to do manually is graphics. And, by the way, their product did it all faster than competitors.

The innovativeness of Lotus 1-2-3 is well shown in the 1983 ad in which everyone dances for joy .



Soon, Lotus passed the test of time and, as all good software relies, captured the market. And then the Bolsheviks came and spoiled everything, the platform changed, the GUI appeared and Excel followed, which remains the leader to this day.