Eleven Major Software Developers Commit to Macintosh on PowerPC
SAN JOSE, California--May 10, 1993--Apple Computer, Inc.'s next generation of Apple Macintosh computers received a significant boost of support today when 11 leading software developers announced they are writing new versions of their applications for the platform. The
new Macintosh systems will be based on PowerPC, a new line of RISC microprocessors designed by Apple, IBM, and Motorola. The forthcoming software products are being specifically adapted to tap the power and performance of the new RISC-based Macintosh family.
The 11 developers, which collectively represent the most popular software application categories, made announcements of support today during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. These new applications, modified to take advantage of Macintosh on PowerPC will
include general productivity applications, such as word-processing and spreadsheets; graphics programs, including rendering and animation; and publishing products such as page layout and design.
The developers who announced their commitment to Macintosh on PowerPC today are Adobe Systems Inc., ACIUS Inc., Aldus Corporation, Claris Corporation, Deneba Software, Frame Technology, Insignia Solutions Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Quark Inc., Specular International, and WordPerfect Corporation.
In addition to this first group of leading software vendors, Apple is already working with hundreds of other key developers worldwide to ensure the availability of a wide range of leading applications and to help catalyze entirely new categories of products, enabled by
the powerful new PowerPC architecture. Apple expects to ship its first PowerPC-based Macintosh computers in the first half of 1994.
"Macintosh on PowerPC gives developers a strategic new market opportunity," said Kirk Loevner, vice president of Apple's Developer Group. "They have the opportunity to differentiate their products and expand their businesses with innovative applications. This is made possible because of the substantial performance improvements of Macintosh on PowerPC. Developers are both writing new applications and adding to existing applications, incorporating features such as 3D rendering and animation, speech recognition, text-to-speech, and complex modeling and analysis."
"Apple is working hard to make the transition to the new Macintosh platform easy for our developers and our customers," said Eric Harslem, vice president of desktop computing, Apple's Macintosh Systems Division. "Compatibility between the two platforms will enable customers to use existing applications--preserving their current investments in Macintosh software--in addition to having access to a broad range of new PowerPC-specific applications."
Over time, Apple plans to offer a full range of products based on PowerPC, from entry-level to high-end Macintosh personal computers. The computers will ship with Apple's standard operating system, System 7. The new computers will offer developers and customers high performance and a variety of new features at competitive prices. In addition to newly developed PowerPC software, nearly all of the thousands of current Macintosh software applications will run unaltered on the new systems.
