MicroPro International

MicroPro International Corporation was the publisher of WordStar, a popular early word processor for personal computers.

History

Seymour I. Rubinstein was an employee of early microcomputer company IMSAI, where he negotiated software contracts with Digital Research and Microsoft. After leaving IMSAI, Rubinstein planned to start his own software company that would sell through the new network of retail computer stores. He founded MicroPro International Corporation in September 1978 and hired John Robbins Barnaby as programmer, who wrote a word processor, WordMaster, and a sorting program, SuperSort, in Intel 8080 assembly language. After Rubinstein obtained a report that discussed the abilities of contemporary standalone word processors from IBM, Xerox, and Wang Laboratories, Barnaby enhanced WordMaster with similar features and support for the CP/M operating system. MicroPro began selling the product, now renamed WordStar, in June 1979.^[1]

WordStar was the first microcomputer word processor to offer mail merge and WYSIWYG. An exhausted Barnaby left the company in March 1980, but due to WordStar's sophistication, the company's extensive sales and marketing efforts, and bundling deals with Osborne and other computer makers, MicroPro's sales grew from $500,000 in 1979 to $72 million in fiscal year 1984, surpassing earlier market leader Electric Pencil. The company released WordStar 3.3 in June 1983; the 650,000 cumulative copies of WordStar for the IBM PC and other computers sold by that fall was more than double that of the second most-popular word processor, and that year MicroPro had 10% of the personal computer software market. By 1984, the year it held an Initial Public Offering, MicroPro was the world's largest software company with 23% of the word processor market.^[1][2]

Several MicroPro employees formed rival company Newstar. In September 1983 it published WordStar clone NewWord, which offered several features the original lacked such as a built-in spell checker and support for laser printers. Despite competition from NewStar, Microsoft's Word, WordPerfect, and dozens of other companies—which typically released new versions of their software every 12 to 18 months—MicroPro did not release new versions of WordStar beyond 3.3 during 1984 and 1985, in part because Rubinstein relinquished control of the company after a January 1984 heart attack. His replacements canceled the promising office suite Starburst, purchased a WordStar clone, and used it as the basis of WordStar 2000. Released in December 1984, it received poor reviews due to not being compatible with WordStar files and other disadvantages, and by selling at the same $495 price as WordStar 3.3 confused customers. Company employees were divided between WordStar and WordStar 2000 factions, and fiscal year 1985 sales declined to $40 million.^[1][3][4][5]

New management purchased NewWord and used it as the basis of WordStar 4.0 in 1987, four years after the previous version. Word (four versions from 1983 to 1987) and WordPerfect (five versions), however, had become the market leaders. More conflict between MicroPro's two factions delayed WordStar 5.0 until late 1988, again hurting the program's sales. After renaming itself after its flagship product in 1989, WordStar International merged with SoftKey in 1993.^[1][6][7]

External links

• Petrie, Michael. A Potted History of WordStar, 9 September 2006.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Bergin, Thomas J. (Oct-Dec 2006). "The Origins of Word Processing Software for Personal Computers: 1976-1985". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 28 (4): 32–47. doi:10.1109/MAHC.2006.76. 
2. ^ Arredondo, Larry (1984-03-26). "Review: WordStar 3.3". InfoWorld. pp. 66. http://books.google.com/books?id=lC4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA66&dq=%22wordstar%203.3%22&pg=PA66#v=onepage&q=%22wordstar%203.3%22&f=false. Retrieved March 6, 2011. 
3. ^ Caruso, Denise (1984-11-19). "NEW WORDSTAR ON THE WAY". InfoWorld. pp. 15. http://books.google.com/books?id=pS4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA15&dq=%22wordstar%202000%22&pg=PA15#v=onepage&q=%22wordstar%202000%22&f=false. Retrieved March 6, 2011. 
4. ^ Wortman, Leon A. (1985-01-07/14). "Wordstar 2000". InfoWorld. pp. 47. http://books.google.com/books?id=-i4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA49&dq=%22wordstar%202000%22&pg=PA47#v=onepage&q=%22wordstar%202000%22&f=false. Retrieved March 6, 2011. 
5. ^ Angel, Jonathan (1986-05-19). "NewWord 3 Is Now More Than Clone Of WordStar". InfoWorld. pp. 57. http://books.google.com/books?id=SS8EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA57&dq=newstar%20new%20word%20wordstar&pg=PA57#v=onepage&q=newstar%20new%20word%20wordstar&f=false. Retrieved March 6, 2011. 
6. ^ Willett, Shawn (1993-05-24). "Merger is first step to a consumer orientation for WordStar". InfoWorld. pp. 31. http://books.google.com/books?id=PTsEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA31&dq=softkey%20worstar&pg=PA31#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved March 6, 2011. 
7. ^ Bergin, Thomas J. (Oct-Dec 2006). "Word Processing Timeline". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/annals/extras/wordvol28n4. Retrieved March 6, 2011.