Steve Jobs on Quantrix: The “Best Spreadsheet on the Planet”
“Best Spreadsheet on the Planet”: In a 1997 WWDC talk, shortly after returning to Apple, Jobs praised the Quantrix software and noted its superiority in modeling.
Steve Jobs was a major proponent of Lotus Improv (the predecessor to Quantrix) during his time at NeXT, hailing it as a revolutionary, “best of breed” spreadsheet application.
He viewed it as a superior alternative to traditional spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel because it separated formulas from data, allowing for more flexible, multidimensional modeling.
An Example of Missed Potential: Jobs expressed frustration that more people did not use it, arguing that if users tried Improv/Quantrix for a week, they would wonder why it had not completely replaced Excel for a vast majority of users.
