LENEXA, KANSAS (May 15, 1989) - Wingz , the new graphic spreadsheet for the Macintosh and an overnight sales sensation, is now striking at Excel's installed base.
Informix announced today that they would be countering Microsoft 's upgrade offer to the installed base of Macintosh users with a competitive offer.
On Friday, May 19th, Informix will unleash a national ad campaign beginning with ads in USA Today and followed with tabloid ads in industry weeklies. The offer allows any current Excel user to purchase a shrink-wrapped copy of Wingz for only $99, with a $20 rebate going to authorized Wingz dealers. The regular suggested retail price of Wingz is $399.
Dealers Benefit: Dollars to Dealers
"We are offering a competitive upgrade coincidental to Microsoft's. However, our upgrade program is designed to seek the assistance of our dealers in reaching the installed base, and reward the dealers for their help," said Douglas Edwards, Executive Director of Wingz Brand Marketing. "Our upgrade enables customers to move up to the advanced features found only in Wingz, for the same price as Microsoft's upgrade, and still gets dollars to the dealer."
Wingz for Excel Upgrade Program
More than 1,300 authorized Wingz dealers are expected to distribute upgrade forms to users, who will send the completed form with their valid Excel serial number or disk and $99 to Informix. Informix will ship the upgrade of Wingz directly to the customer, and rebate dealers $20 for each upgrade. Ads for the upgrade provide an 800 number for the location of the nearest Wingz dealer. The upgrade program will be in effect from May 19 until June 30, 1989, and is limited to the U.S. and Canada.
#1 Best Selling Software
Wingz sales have been tremendous. Wingz was rated the #1 best selling business software for Macintosh on the Ingram Micro D Best Sellers List during May 1989.
Spreadsheet Wars Heat Up
"We are targeting Wingz to become the standard spreadsheet offering for graphical environments," continued Edwards. "We are off to a good start, and intend to aggressively compete with creative marketing tactics as the spreadsheet wars continue to heat up."
Wingz
Wingz is the largest, fastest, and most versatile spreadsheet for any microcomputer. Wingz allows users to easily combine numbers, words, graphs and graphic images on a single worksheet, and print to a single page. Wingz features advanced charting and 3-D graphs, desktop presentation capabilities, and HyperScript application development language.
About Informix
Informix Software, Inc. is a $100 million information management and application development software company headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif.
The Workstation Products Division, Lenexa, Kansas, markets and develops windowed and office automation software including SmartWare , high performance integrated office automation software, and Wingz, a graphic spreadsheet for windowing environments.
The Advanced Products Division, Menlo Park, Calif., is the leading supplier of RDBMS software to the UNIX market. Its full line of RDBMS, network, and 4GL application development software is available on more than 160 UNIX-based platforms and for the MS-DOS , OS/2 and VMS environments as well.
In addition to locations in Menlo Park, Calif. and Lenexa, Ks., Informix has wholly owned subsidiaries in London, Stockholm, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich and Madrid to cover the major European markets. Informix also has wholly owned subsidiaries in Canada and Australia, as well as distributors in the Far
East, Latin America, Middle East and Africa.
Informix employs more than 900 people worldwide, with headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Informix common stock is traded over-the-counter under the NASDAQ symbol "IFMX".
Informix, HyperScript, and SmartWare are registered trademarks of Informix Software, Inc. Wingz is a trademark of Informix Software, Inc. All other names marked by or are trademarks or tradenames of their respective manufacturers.
------Also a hint for those using the Wingz demo..it can do everything except save...however..you can use the clipboard to copy the graph's into other applications..
