Creation
During the early days of the Macintosh computer, Apple shipped the machines with two basic programs, MacWrite and MacPaint, 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.
Apple decided to allow the programs to "wither", so that the third party developers would have time to write suitable replacements. Unfortunately the developers didn't 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 upgrades, while the third party developers continued to complain about the possibility of upgrades.
Eventually Apple decided the only solution was to spin off the products to a third party of their 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") were in Santa Clara, about six miles from the main Apple campus.
At first Claris provided only trivial upgrades, limited to making the products continue to run on newer versions of the Macintosh operating system. In 1988, Claris purchased FileMaker from Nashoba Systems and quickly released a rebranded version called FileMaker II. 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.
In 1990, Apple decided that the now-successful Claris should remain a wholly owned subsidiary, as opposed to completely being spun off in an initial public offering. The company president soon left, and over the next year most of the other executives followed.
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).
Read more about this topic: Claris
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