A Brief History of Spreadsheets

history

Spreadsheets have been available since the late 70's for micro-computers.

The first being VISICALC for the Apple II, which proved so popular that thousands of Apples were sold simply because of this one program.

Shortly afterwards, Microsoft released a more user friendly spreadsheet called Multiplan which looked set to dominate the market until....

In 1981 IBM launched its micro-computer in the shape of the IBM PC onto the market.

The development and release of LOTUS 1-2-3 for the IBM PC caused history to repeat itself.

What VISICALC had been for the Apple, Lotus 1-2-3 became for the IBM PC.

LOTUS 1-2-3 is one of the most successful integrated packages to date.

That is it combines a large, fast spreadsheet with simple database handling and graphics capability.

With the advent of the Windows environment, many users were wooed away from the archaic look and difficult operations of DOS and used EXCEL or LOTUS for Windows.

Microsoft Excel now dominates the spreadsheet market.