Holosoft Bullish on Newton with New Spreadsheet

One sign of a healthy environment for any platform is the appearance of multiple applications in the same general class. By this measure, Holosoft is clearly betting on a prosperous future for Apple’s Newton PDAs. In fact, the company cites a recent report from Forrester Research that predicts a market of over 370,000 units for PDAs in 1995, with over 75% market share going to Apple’s Newton.

Holosoft is also wagering that people will want to move large and complex spreadsheets between its Newtons and Macintosh desktop computers. The solution: a new spreadsheet for the Newton called Equate. Equate enables people to view and modify spreadsheets created using Microsoft Excel for Macintosh.

Equate does this by supporting Excel’s maximum spreadsheet size which is a mind-numbing 16384 rows by 255 columns. Equate is also compatible with most of Excel’s number, text, and column width information, enabling people to retain their formula and format information on the Newton.

Equate relies on Apple’s Newton Connection Kit for Macintosh to move files between the desktop computer and PDA. Using custom translator modules developed by Holosoft, people can import and export spreadsheet files in Excel’s file format. People can even transfer several files between the platforms using a single menu option within Equate.

Equate is available directly from Holosoft, and through other select catalog and retail dealers. The package includes both the Newton application along with the desktop file translator. Equate is priced at $99, however it requires Apple’s Newton Connection Kit for Macintosh to manage the serial connection.

Holosoft, Inc.
Paul Smith
3333 Bowers Avenue
Santa Clara, CA 95054
(408) 748-9648
(408) 970-9323 (fax)