Editing Lotus Improv (section)

===After Improv===

Improv's disappointing sales and eventual cancellation on the PC platform has been used as a case study in numerous post-failure analyses of the software market. Sales on the [[NeXT]] platform could be explained by NeXTs limited marketshare, but the failure on the PC was another issue. Among the favored explanations are the fact that, unlike the release on NeXT, the Windows version faced strong internal resistance from 1-2-3, and [[corporate immune response]] became an issue. Lotus' sales and marketing teams, well versed in selling 1-2-3, did not know how to sell Improv into the market, so they simply didn't, selling the well known and understood 1-2-3. Other explanations include the fact that [[Microsoft Excel]] was being offered as part of the [[Microsoft Office|Office]] bundle at marginal rates that were tiny in comparison, as well as several mis-steps during introduction, like the lack of a macro language or undo. [[Joel Spolsky]] blames it on the design itself, claiming it was too perfectly aimed at a specific market and lacked the generality that Excel featured.<ref>Joel Spolsky, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vPvhzDqZlaAC&pg=PA25 "The best software writing"], Apress, 2005, p. 25</ref>

Although Improv disappeared in the 1990s, the program is fondly recalled in the industry<ref>Michael O'Malley, [http://moosevalley.solidwebhost.com/mooses_review_page_lotus_improv.html "Moose's Greatest Products of All Time : Lotus Improv"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330195352/http://moosevalley.solidwebhost.com/mooses_review_page_lotus_improv.html |date=2012-03-30 }}, 4 February 2002</ref> and continues to be mentioned in books on Excel.<ref>Dan Gookin, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vYLpq4BtVREC&pg=PA227 "Power Excel and Word"], [[John Wiley & Sons]], 2004, p. 227</ref> When Improv disappeared a number of clones of Improv quickly appeared. Notable among these was [[Lighthouse Design]]'s Quantrix, an almost direct clone aimed at the financial market. Quantrix suffered the same fate as Improv when the company was purchased by [[Sun Microsystems]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theregister.com/2003/09/22/suns_macos_x_suite/ |title=Sun's 'MacOS X' suite to remain in Sun morgue |last=Orlowski |first=Andrew |date=September 22, 2003 |publisher=[[The Register]] |access-date=February 10, 2022 |quote=}}</ref>