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At first glance, it appears that 1-2-3/M, Lotus Development Corp.'s spreadsheet for various IBM mainframe environments, may not have much of a future. But a closer look reveals a client/server detour in the future for the roughly 18-month-old package. Without it, even Lotus might admit that 1-2-3/M risks finding itself relegated to a computer museum.
Lotus acknowledged that 1-2-3/M does not have a large following. The total installed base for mainframe spreadsheets, according to LaJolla, Calif., market researchers Computer Intelligence/Infocorp, is only 1,500 to 1,600, out of which Lotus is claiming a 15% share. Lotus was "surprised and a little chagrined" to find that the primarily leased 1-2-3/M is mostly used as a 3270 terminal-based spreadsheet.
"You won't see the mainframe used as a spreadsheet engine until Lotus and the users have fully implemented the networks and distributed application architecture that positions the mainframe as an intelligent back end to the PC spreadsheet," said John Dunnle, a consultant at Workgroup Technologies, Inc. in Hampton, N.H.
Ominous trends
Even if the terminal-access slice of the...