Lotus 1-2-3, a spreadsheet program by Kapor and Sachs, revolutionized personal PCs with its speed, multitasking, and charting capabilities, retiring in 2013 to become Microsoft Excel.
(Credit: simplilearn)
Lotus 1-2-3 Day 2024: Lotus 1-2-3 Day is observed on January 26 every year. On this day in history, the greatest spreadsheet program ever released was unveiled. Lotus software completely revolutionized the world of personal computers by altering how people calculated, well, everything.
This indispensable workplace tool helped create the foundation for subsequent spreadsheets. Some of them may even be familiar to you—Microsoft Excel, for example. We commemorate Lotus 1-2-3’s birthday today and the convenience it provided to the working lives of the majority of people.
During the 1970s, large sheets of paper, or “spreadsheets,” were the only tool available to anybody seeking to compute large amounts of data (such as office expenses, etc.). Then, a program with the name of VisiCalc appeared in the 1980s. It elevated its host machine, the Apple II series, to the top of the personal computer charts and made number-crunching incredibly simple. Every computer system back then included a “killer app” that justified purchasing the entire system.
Mitchell Kapor and Jonathan Sachs founded the Lotus Development Corporation during this same time. They created the IBM PC before moving on to our hero, the Lotus 1-2-3. The Lotus 1-2-3, which was a three-in-one application that integrated spreadsheet, graphing, and basic database functions, was a computing advancement that gave rise to its moniker.
Although Lotus 1-2-3 and VisiCalc shared certain similarities, the former was faster, had more features, and allowed multitasking. Due to this, Lotus 1-2-3 was able to take the lead in the market and eventually surpass IBM.
Thanks to its “killer app,” the company gained a fortune, generating a net worth of $150 million in its first year and growing to $156.9 million in the next.
A year later, Microsoft Excel, a product that went on to become a household name, overtook Lotus 1-2-3 as the most popular program. By the 1990s, Lotus 1-2-3 had fallen to third place among the top spreadsheet programs, and it eventually became unusable.
In 2012, nearly thirty years after IBM acquired Lotus, the company announced it was retiring the Lotus brand.
It’s not necessary to pull out a computer from the 1980s to run an out-of-date program.
Add some fun to spreadsheets by adding a list of books or movies to watch or read. Make use of them for some light organizing (grocery shopping, budgeting, etc.). Alternatively, just use it to remember significant days.
It’s possible that you could find a computer from that era, but perhaps not. That shouldn’t deter you from planning an 80s-themed party with futuristic décor.
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The over-thirty-year-old spreadsheet and software provide us with precisely this.
And the way that innovation and technology have transformed our world since its creation leaves us in awe of what lies ahead.
Even when we open Excel or Google Docs today, we can’t help but wonder what the world would have looked like if Jonathan Sacks hadn’t created the spreadsheet software. Would we be using paper money for counting still? Would another invention have completely changed the PC world?
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | January 26 | Friday |
| 2025 | January 26 | Sunday |
| 2026 | January 26 | Monday |
| 2027 | January 26 | Tuesday |
| 2028 | January 26 | Wednesday |
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