Editing VisiCalc (section)

=== Decline ===
A more dramatic change occurred with the 1983 launch of [[Lotus Development Corporation]]'s [[Lotus 1-2-3]], created by former Personal Software/VisiCorp employee [[Mitch Kapor]], who had written VisiTrend and VisiPlot. Unlike the IBM PC version of VisiCalc, 1-2-3 was written to take full advantage of the PC's increased memory, screen, and performance. Yet it was designed to be as compatible as possible with VisiCalc, including the menu structure, to allow VisiCalc users to easily migrate to 1-2-3.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

1-2-3 was almost immediately successful, and in 1984, ''[[InfoWorld]]'' wrote that sales of VisiCalc were "rapidly declining", stating, that it was "the first successful software product to have gone through a complete [[software life cycle|life cycle]], from conception in 1978 to introduction in 1979 to peak success in 1982 to decline in 1983 to a probable death according to industry insiders in 1984". The magazine added that the company was slow to upgrade the software, in part due to the choice to focus their update on the ill-fated [[Apple III]]; the Advanced Version of VisiCalc for Apple III came out in 1982.<ref>https://winworldpc.com/product/visicalc/advanced-apple-iii</ref> Only in 1983 did a version come out for Apple II, with a version for the IBM PC being announced (but not delivered) in 1984.<ref name="caruso19840402">{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kC4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA80 |title=Company Strategies Boomerang |work=InfoWorld |date=April 2, 1984 |access-date=February 10, 2015 |author=Caruso, Denise |pages=80–83 |archive-date=October 19, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019070623/https://books.google.com/books?id=kC4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA80 |url-status=live }}</ref> VisiCorp sued Software Arts in September 1983; the lawsuit and countersuit focused on the VisiCalc trademark. The two companies settled in September 1984; VisiCorp paid $500,000 in royalties to Software Arts, which received the VisiCalc trademark but not rights to the "Visi" prefix. VisiCorp could continue to use "Visi" with other software.{{r|rumelt2003}} By 1985, VisiCorp was insolvent. [[Lotus Development]] acquired Software Arts, and ended sales of the application.<ref name="langdell19850806"/>