Claris was a computer
software developerA software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process. Their work includes researching, designing, developing, and testing software. A software developer may take part in design, computer programming, or software project management...
formed as a spin-off from Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) in 1987. It was given the
source codeIn computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
and
copyrightCopyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
s to several programs that were owned by Apple, notably
MacWriteMacWrite was a word processor application released along with the first Apple Macintosh systems in 1984. It was the first such program that was widely available to the public to offer WYSIWYG operation, with multiple fonts and styles...
and
MacPaintMacPaint was a bitmap-based graphics painting software program developed by Apple Computer and released with the original Macintosh personal computer on January 22, 1984. It was sold separately for US$195 with its word processor counterpart, MacWrite. MacPaint was notable because it could generate...
, in order to separate Apple's application software activities from its
hardwarePersonal computer hardware are component devices which are typically installed into or peripheral to a computer case to create a personal computer upon which system software is installed including a firmware interface such as a BIOS and an operating system which supports application software that...
and
operating systemAn operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s activities.
In 1998 the company divested itself of all but its flagship product, and reformed as
FileMaker Inc.FileMaker Inc. is a computer software company formed in 1998 from the vestiges of Claris as a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple Inc.FileMaker develops, supports and markets two relational database programs; FileMaker and Bento. FileMaker is available for both Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating...
Creation
During the early days of the Macintosh computer, Apple shipped the machines with two basic programs, MacWrite and MacPaint, so that users would have a working machine "out of the box". However, this resulted in complaints from third party developers, who felt that these programs were good enough for so many users that there was little reason to buy something better.
Apple decided to allow the programs to "wither", so that the third party developers would have time to write suitable replacements. Unfortunately the developers didn't seem to hold up their end of the bargain, and it was some time before truly capable replacements like
WriteNowWriteNow was one of the two original word processor applications developed for the launch of the Apple Macintosh in 1984, and was the primary word processor for computers manufactured by NeXT....
came along. In the meantime users complained about the lack of
upgradeThe term upgrade refers to the replacement of a product with a newer version of the same product. It is most often used in computing and consumer electronics, generally meaning a replacement of hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better version, in order to bring the system up to date...
s, while the third party
developersA programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...
continued to complain about the
possibility of upgrades.
Eventually Apple decided the only solution was to spin off the products to a third party of their own creation, forming Claris in 1987. Claris was also given the rights to several lesser-known Apple products such as
MacProjectMacProject was a project management and scheduling business application released along with the first Apple Macintosh systems in 1984. MacProject was one of the first major business tools for the Macintosh which enabled users to calculate the "critical path" to completion and estimate costs in...
,
MacDrawMacDraw was a vector based drawing application released along with the first Apple Macintosh systems in 1984. MacDraw was one of the first WYSIWYG drawing programs that could be used in collaboration with MacWrite. MacDraw was useful for drawing technical diagrams and floorplans...
, as well as the hit
Apple IIThe Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
product,
AppleWorksAppleWorks refers to two different office suite products, both of which are now discontinued. Originally, AppleWorks was an integrated software package for the Apple II platform, released in 1984 by Apple Computer...
. Claris' second corporate headquarters (nicknamed "The Wedge") were in
Santa ClaraSanta Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
, about six miles from the main Apple campus.
At first Claris provided only trivial upgrades, limited to making the products continue to run on newer versions of the
Macintosh operating systemMac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
. In 1988, Claris purchased
FileMakerFileMaker Pro is a cross-platform relational database application from FileMaker Inc., formerly Claris, a subsidiary of Apple Inc. It integrates a database engine with a GUI-based interface, allowing users to modify the database by dragging new elements into layouts, screens, or forms...
from Nashoba Systems and quickly released a rebranded version called FileMaker II. In the meantime, development began on major overhauls of their entire product line, including FileMaker. Each of these would be eventually released as part of the Pro series of products.
In 1990, Apple decided that the now-successful Claris should remain a wholly owned
subsidiaryA subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
, as opposed to completely being spun off in an
initial public offeringAn initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
. The company president soon left, and over the next year most of the other executives followed.
That same year Claris also purchased an integrated application written by two former Claris employees. After rebranding in a style similar to FileMaker, MacDraw and MacWrite, it was released in 1991 as ClarisWorks, and became another huge success for the company. After a lengthy series of ups and downs, this product was eventually taken back by Apple in 1998 and rebranded as
AppleWorksAppleWorks refers to two different office suite products, both of which are now discontinued. Originally, AppleWorks was an integrated software package for the Apple II platform, released in 1984 by Apple Computer...
(for Macintosh).
Pro series
In the late 1980s Claris began a major upgrade effort, re-writing all of its products to use a more modern and common user interface. The result was the "Pro" series: MacDraw Pro, MacWrite Pro and FileMaker Pro. In order to provide a complete
office suiteIn 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...
they later purchased the rights to the
Informix WingZWingz was a spreadsheet program sold by Informix in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Originally developed for the Macintosh, it was later distributed on Microsoft Windows, OS/2, NextStep and several other commercial flavors of Unix...
spreadsheetA 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...
on the Mac, re-branding it as
Claris ResolveClaris Resolve was a spreadsheet software program for the Apple Macintosh. It was released by Claris in 1991 and sold until 1994.In an effort to flesh out their software suite, in the early 90's Claris wanted to introduce a spreadsheet application, and decided to buy an existing one...
, and added the new
presentation programA presentation program is a computer software package used to display information, normally in the form of a slide show...
Claris ImpactClaris Impact was a presentation and chart software program made for the Apple Macintosh computer developed by Claris....
.
The series was released piecemeal over a period of about two years, during which period
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
was able to dominate the market with
Microsoft WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
and
Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
. While the Claris packages were arguably much more "approachable" than the Microsoft applications, the Claris software applications lacked some features of the now mature Microsoft suite, leaving them lacking in "checkbox features." Their value was further eroded by aggressive bundling deals from Microsoft that could allow Word, Excel and PowerPoint to be purchased for a cost not much higher than MacWrite alone, a bundle that Claris did not match. Claris did offer ClarisWorks, an all-in-one package, and while the price was right it was very limited and could not compete in the
businessA business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
market. Microsoft also released a
WorksMicrosoft Works is an integrated package software that is produced by Microsoft. Works is smaller, less expensive, and has fewer features than Microsoft Office or other major office suites. Its core functionality includes a word processor, a spreadsheet and a database management system...
package.
Microsoft's domination of the Macintosh
office suiteIn 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...
software marketplace would be replicated five years later when (following the release of
Windows 95Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
),
Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
crushed its two main rivals in Windows software: the
WordPerfectWordPerfect is a word processing application, now owned by Corel.Bruce Bastian, a Brigham Young University graduate student, and BYU computer science professor Dr. Alan Ashton joined forces to design a word processing system for the city of Orem's Data General Corp. minicomputer system in 1979...
/Quattro Pro suite and the
Lotus SmartSuiteSmartSuite is an office suite from Lotus Software. The company made versions of its office suite for IBM OS/2 and Microsoft Windows.-Status:SmartSuite is in maintenance mode, and supported with fixes and fixpacks on Windows 2000 and Windows XP...
.
Other applications
In the late 1980s,
HyperCardHyperCard is an application program created by Bill Atkinson for Apple Computer, Inc. that was among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web. It combines database capabilities with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface. HyperCard also features HyperTalk, written...
needed updating as well, but Apple management did not see any value in the product and let it wither. Complaints eventually became loud enough that they decided
something had to be done. Studying the problem, they decided that all software should be released through Claris, and sent HyperCard and the Mac OS to them. Many of the developers refused to move to Claris, leading to a serious split in development that delayed future releases of both products. The Mac OS was soon returned to Apple, although HyperCard was ignored for a time, before also returning briefly as a part of the
QuickTimeQuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
group.
In 1988, Claris published
Claris CADClaris CAD is a two-dimensional computer-aided design program for Apple Inc. Macintosh.-History:Claris CAD was developed in 1988 by Claris Corporation in a joint effort with Craig S. Young of Computer Aided Systems for Engineering . It was based on MacDraw II and Young's earlier CAD application,...
, a 2-D CAD package, and Claris Graphics Translator, a translation package for Claris CAD.
In early 1989, Claris published SmartForm Designer, software to design forms, and a companion product, SmartForm Assistant, software to fill forms created by SmartForm Designer.
In 1994, Claris published
Amazing AnimationAmazing Animation was a program published by Claris for the Apple Macintosh in 1994.Amazing Animation was targeted mainly at children and young teenagers, allowing them to produce their own animated short films with relative ease. The program featured pre-made backgrounds and sounds, and "actors"...
, software aimed at children and young teenagers, allowing them to produce their own short animated films.
In 1995 Claris purchased and released
Claris HomepageClaris Home Page was one of the earliest true what-you-see-is-what-you-get HTML editors. The project was code-named Loma Prieta. Claris purchased it from San Andreas Systems, reworked it to use their corporate user interface, and released it in 1996.- History :Home Page supported all of the...
, which enjoyed popularity as one of the few truly
GUIIn computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
-based
WYSIWYGWYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...
HTML editorAn HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. Although the HTML markup of a web page can be written with any text editor, specialized HTML editors can offer convenience and added functionality. For example, many HTML editors work not only with HTML, but also with related...
s of the time.
Other products added to the line included Claris Emailer,
Claris OfficeMailClaris OfficeMail was an email server for the Mac-platform released in 1996. It was designed for small offices and schools, and shipped as a complementary product to Claris Emailer....
, and
Claris OrganizerClaris Organizer is a personal information management software program for the Mac OS that Claris acquired from a small company called Trio Development and sold during the 1990s. Trio Development was founded by James Harker, Jack Welde and Joseph Ansanelli , afterward joined by Seth Odam...
. These products were part of a new effort to diversify Claris and no longer chase the "office" market, which by this point was considered a lost cause.
Transition to FileMaker Inc.
By the mid-1990s it appeared to most observers that Apple was in serious danger of disappearing. The main ClarisWorks development team left Claris, disillusioned with the product and the market, and founded
Gobe SoftwareGobe Software, Inc was a software company that published an integrated desktop software suite for BeOS. In later years, it was the publisher of BeOS itself....
, which produced a Claris-like office suite for the then-new
BeOSBeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. in 1991. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was optimized for digital media work and was written to take advantage of modern hardware facilities such as symmetric multiprocessing by utilizing...
.
Facing declining sales, Claris management decided that FileMaker was the only product worth keeping, and put all of the rest of the products on indefinite hold. By 1998 the transition was complete and the company renamed itself as
FileMaker Inc.FileMaker Inc. is a computer software company formed in 1998 from the vestiges of Claris as a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple Inc.FileMaker develops, supports and markets two relational database programs; FileMaker and Bento. FileMaker is available for both Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating...
Claris's only other major product, ClarisWorks, was taken back by Apple to become
AppleWorksAppleWorks refers to two different office suite products, both of which are now discontinued. Originally, AppleWorks was an integrated software package for the Apple II platform, released in 1984 by Apple Computer...
. The company kept FileMaker and Claris HomePage 3.0. The latter was discontinued in 2001 leaving FileMaker as its lone offering until January 8, 2008, when the company released
BentoBento is a database application for Mac OS X made by FileMaker Inc. Bento differs significantly from the company's flagship product, FileMaker Pro, in that it relies heavily on templates and integration with other applications...
, a template-based database application with a leaning toward information from other applications.
External links