Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.2
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| Developer(s) | IBM |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 26 January 1983 |
| Stable release |
9.8.2 / 2002
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| Development status | Discontinued |
| Operating system | DOS, Windows, OS/2, classic Mac OS, MVS, VM/CMS, OpenVMS, Unix |
| Type | Spreadsheet |
| License | Proprietary |
Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the IBM PC's first killer application, was hugely popular in the 1980s and contributed significantly to the success of the IBM PC.
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 in spite of the greatly expanded hardware capabilities. Lotus' solution was marketed as a three-in-one integrated solution, which handled spreadsheet calculations, database functionality, and graphical charts, hence the name "1-2-3", though how much database capability was debatable given Lotus' sparse memory. 1-2-3 quickly overtook VisiCalc, as well as Multiplan and SuperCalc, two VisiCalc competitors.
1-2-3 was the spreadsheet standard throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, part of a suite of three office automation products that included dBase and WordPerfect, to build a complete business platform. With the acceptance of Windows 3.0, the market for desktop software grew even more. None of the major spreadsheet developers had seriously considered the graphical user interface to supplement their DOS offerings, and so they responded slowly to Microsoft's own graphical-based products, Excel and Word. Lotus was passed by Microsoft in the early 1990s and never recovered. IBM purchased Lotus and continued to sell Lotus offerings, only officially ending sales in 2013.
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