Lotus Jazz
Encyclopedia
Lotus Jazz was an office suite
for the Apple Macintosh, released in 1985, after the substantial success of Lotus 1-2-3
for the IBM-compatible PC. It was a commercial failure due to both its low quality and also aggressive competition.
blunder in the book." Among them: overpricing it at $595.00, copy protecting it, and "blunder of blunders, they named it Jazz instead of 1-2-3 for the Mac. This was a dubious decision based on differentiation nonsense."
Lotus started follow-on projects, called "Modern Jazz" and "Mac 1-2-3", neither of which had the Mac "look and feel
". Lotus canceled Modern Jazz although it had already been announced. "Seemingly without a clue as to what the Mac was about, and without a successful Mac product to their credit, the Lotus team built in a DOS screen to allow DOS 1-2-3 users to use their familiar keystrokes."
module, allowing users dialing into corporate mainframes to have onscreen reports be parsed directly into spreadsheet columns for later editing and refinement.
, one to start up and one to operate the program. Most of the speed issues users experienced were related to its poor handling of diskette swaps on Macs which lacked hard drives. However, the aforementioned copy protection precluded copying and running the program entirely from a hard drive if available. A diskette failure also rendered the program unusable.
Office suite
In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a collection of programs intended to be used by knowledge workers...
for the Apple Macintosh, released in 1985, after the substantial success of Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software . It was the IBM PC's first "killer application"; its huge popularity in the mid-1980s contributed significantly to the success of the IBM PC in the corporate environment.-Beginnings:...
for the IBM-compatible PC. It was a commercial failure due to both its low quality and also aggressive competition.
Marketing
John Dvorak called it "one of the great flopperoos in computing history" and said "Lotus made every marketingMarketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
blunder in the book." Among them: overpricing it at $595.00, copy protecting it, and "blunder of blunders, they named it Jazz instead of 1-2-3 for the Mac. This was a dubious decision based on differentiation nonsense."
Lotus started follow-on projects, called "Modern Jazz" and "Mac 1-2-3", neither of which had the Mac "look and feel
Look and feel
In software design, look and feel is a term used in respect of a graphical user interface and comprises aspects of its design, including elements such as colors, shapes, layout, and typefaces , as well as the behavior of dynamic elements such as buttons, boxes, and menus...
". Lotus canceled Modern Jazz although it had already been announced. "Seemingly without a clue as to what the Mac was about, and without a successful Mac product to their credit, the Lotus team built in a DOS screen to allow DOS 1-2-3 users to use their familiar keystrokes."
Innovations
Jazz was not without some interesting features. One of the more notable was the integration of its terminal emulation module with the spreadsheetSpreadsheet
A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas...
module, allowing users dialing into corporate mainframes to have onscreen reports be parsed directly into spreadsheet columns for later editing and refinement.
Issues
Jazz shipped on two 3½" diskettesFloppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
, one to start up and one to operate the program. Most of the speed issues users experienced were related to its poor handling of diskette swaps on Macs which lacked hard drives. However, the aforementioned copy protection precluded copying and running the program entirely from a hard drive if available. A diskette failure also rendered the program unusable.