Editing Claris (section)

== History ==
{{Original research|section|date=July 2010}}
{{plain image with caption|File:Claris old logo.svg|First Claris logo|150px}}
[[File:5201_Patrick_Henry_Drive.jpg|thumb|right|Former Claris headquarters in Santa Clara<ref name="NewProducts">{{cite journal |title=New Products |journal=Computerworld |date=May 10, 1993 |volume=27 |issue=19 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKyWnw1bumwC&pg=PA41}}</ref> ("The Wedge"), circa 2022]]

In the early days of the [[Mac (computer)|Mac]], Apple shipped the machines with two basic programs, MacWrite and Mac Paint, 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pollack |first=Andrew |date=1987-04-29 |title=Apple to Spin Off Software Business |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/29/business/company-news-apple-to-spin-off-software-business.html}}</ref>

Apple decided to allow the programs to "wither" so that the third-party developers would have time to write suitable replacements. The developers did not seem to hold up their end of the bargain, and it was some time before truly capable replacements like [[WriteNow]] came along. In the meantime users complained about the lack of [[upgrade]]s, while the third-party [[Programmer|developers]] continued to complain about the ''possibility'' of upgrades.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}

Eventually Apple decided the only solution was to spin off the products to a third party of its own creation, forming Claris in 1987. Claris was also given the rights to several lesser-known Apple products such as [[MacProject]], [[MacDraw]], and the hit [[Apple II]] product [[AppleWorks]]. Claris' second corporate headquarters (nicknamed "The Wedge") was in [[Santa Clara, California|Santa Clara]], about six miles from the main Apple campus.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}

At first Claris provided only trivial upgrades, limited to making the products continue to run on newer versions of the [[classic Mac OS|Macintosh operating system]]. In 1988, Claris purchased [[FileMaker]] from Nashoba Systems and quickly released a rebranded version called FileMaker II, to conform to its naming scheme for other products, such as MacWrite II. The product, however, changed little from the last Nashoba version. Several minor versions followed; it was succeeded by FileMaker Pro 1.0 in 1990.  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.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}

In 1990, Apple decided that Claris should remain a wholly owned [[subsidiary]], as opposed to being completely spun off in an [[initial public offering]]. The company president soon left, and over the next year most of the other executives followed.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}

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 [[AppleWorks]] (for Macintosh).{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}

In September 1992, Claris released a cross-platform version of FileMaker for both the Mac and Windows; except for a few platform-specific functions, the program's features and user interface were the same. Up to this point FileMaker had no real relational capabilities; it was limited to automatically looking up and importing values from other files. It only had the ability to save a state—a filter and a sort, and a layout for the data. Version 3.0, released around 1995, introduced new relational and scripting features.<ref name="dancing">{{cite web|url=https://fortune.com/2014/07/17/bill-campbell-apple-intuit-board/|title=After 17 years, Bill Campbell steps down from Apple's board|last=Lashinsky|first=Adam|date=July 17, 2014|website=Fortune|access-date=July 17, 2014}}</ref>

=== 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 Software]], which produced a Claris-like office suite for [[BeOS]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}

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. Claris's only other major product, ClarisWorks, was taken back by Apple to become [[AppleWorks]]. 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 [[Bento (database)|Bento]], a template-based database application with a leaning toward information from other applications. Bento was discontinued on September 30, 2013.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}

=== Return to Claris ===
During DevCon 2019, the developers' conference, FileMaker announced it was resurrecting the Claris name and re-branding commenced. FileMaker Inc. changed its name to Claris International.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Apple subsidiary FileMaker Inc. changes its name (back) to Claris|url=https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/06/apple-subsidiary-filemaker-inc-changes-its-name-back-to-claris/|access-date=2024-02-04|website=TechCrunch|date=6 August 2019 |language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807120121/https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/06/apple-subsidiary-filemaker-inc-changes-its-name-back-to-claris/|archive-date=2019-08-07}}</ref> The FileMaker product name remains as Claris FileMaker.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}