Ashton-Tate Goes for Macintosh Market

Ashton-Tate Corp., trying to capitalize on the booming interest in software for Apple Computer’s Macintosh model, unveiled three programs Wednesday designed for the popular personal computer.

The Torrance-based company’s move is expected to intensify its competition with Microsoft, which long has been the dominant software supplier for the Macintosh. It also could force Microsoft to introduce new products and take other defensive measures to protect its lucrative Macintosh market share.

‘Uphill Fight’

Several technology analysts said that Apple Computer, which has counted on new software to increase sales of Macintoshes to businesses, may reap the most from Ashton-Tate’s newest products.

“It’s an uphill fight when you go up against an entrenched leader with lots of resources, like Microsoft,” said Bruce Johnston, an analyst with the First Boston investment firm in New York. “Apple is probably the clearest beneficiary of this. It’s always better to have big companies fighting to supply software for your computers.”

Ashton-Tate’s new Macintosh software programs are Full Impact, a spreadsheet system that can be used to write business reports, which will be shipped by late July; FullWrite Professional, a word-processing and desktop publishing system to be available by late April, and dBASE Mac RunTime, a lower-cost version of previously released database software, which will be available in April.

Spreadsheet software is used to perform mathematical calculations and database software organizes lists or categories of information.

Ashton-Tate also announced that it has purchased Ann Arbor Softworks, the software house that developed FullWrite Professional and FullPaint, a graphics and coloring program sold by Ashton-Tate. The deal’s terms were not disclosed.

New Subsidiary Created

Ann Arbor Softworks will be merged into Ashton-Tate’s Macintosh Software Division, a new 50-member unit with responsibility for development of new Macintosh products. The unit will be relocated to Silicon Valley this summer.

Until the move, Ashton-Tate Chairman and Chief Executive Edward Esber will oversee operations of the unit.

Ashton-Tate’s moves, analysts said, represent an ambitious bid for prominence in the Macintosh market, which has expanded rapidly as corporate America has increasingly embraced the machine.

The company’s new products also offer further evidence that it is serious about expanding its product line beyond dBASE, its well-known initial software offering, a database program that still accounts for more than 60% of the nearly 8-year-old company’s revenue.

“This clearly gives us the No. 2 position in the Macintosh market,” said Luther Nussbaum, Ashton-Tate’s president. “We are clearly on the move and we are an absolutely more aggressive Ashton-Tate than in the past.”

Analysts say the Macintosh software market is large enough to for additional suppliers. They say Macintosh software sales accounted for nearly 10% of the $6.5 billion in personal computer software sold in the United States last year.