COMPANIES TO WATCH Paladin Software Corp.
(FORTUNE Magazine) – Paladin (the word means hero) has taken on an industry Goliath. But unlike the legendary David, the company so far isn't much of a hero. In June the tiny, privately held San Jose company was the first to offer a sophisticated spreadsheet program designed for Apple Computer's Macintosh, beating Microsoft by four months. Though industry reviewers are almost unanimous in their praise of Paladin's program, called Crunch, the $295 item has sold just over 10,000 copies, while Microsoft has more than doubled that number with its $395 Excel program. Paladin has announced a new, improved version of Crunch, to be on the market in January. Among other features, the new version helps users double- check entries by speaking the numbers as they are entered on the keyboard. With more than 500,000 Macs in use, Paladin may still have a fighting chance. |
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