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Quartz Asks CTO Dan: Any Spreadsheet Equivalent for the Mobile World?

Amy Groden-Morrison

Alpha Software CTO Dan Bricklin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alpha Software CTO Dan Bricklin


This week, Quartz, a digital news outlet for business people in the new global economy, interviewed Alpha Software CTO Dan Bricklin, creator of the first “killer app.” This article, by Jason Karaian, highlights Bricklin’s on the computing industry with the creation of VisiCalc – the first modern spreadsheet -- with Bob Frankston.

After getting Bricklin’s perspective on why the spreadsheet was/is so successful, Karaian asks Bricklin what advice he can give to developers trying to build the next killer app. The he asks Bricklin the million-dollar question: “So is there an equivalent to the spreadsheet that will someday revolutionize the mobile world?”

Dan explains:

“What types of tools do we need on a mobile device? Entering lots of data into a spreadsheet is not it. One of the most interesting ways to input data on the mobile is the camera. It can hold so many types of information that we can’t express through other means, including emotional content. That is an area of interest. I’m sure there’s space there.

Clever people, like those who first figured out how to use spreadsheets for their business, are going to look at the capabilities of these devices and come up with new services. A lot of it is trial and error.”

Read the full interview with Dan.

Listen to another recent interview with Dan on the future of mobile apps and what he’s working on at Alpha Software.
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About Author

Amy Groden-Morrison
Amy Groden-Morrison

Amy Groden-Morrison has served more than 15 years in marketing communications leadership roles at companies such as TIBCO Software, RSA Security and Ziff-Davis. Most recently she was responsible for developing marketing programs that helped achieve 30%+ annual growth rate for analytics products at a $1Bil, NASDAQ-listed business integration Software Company. Her past accomplishments include establishing the first co-branded technology program with CNN, launching an events company on the NYSE, rebranding a NASDAQ-listed company amid a crisis, and positioning and marketing a Boston-area startup for successful acquisition. Amy currently serves as a Healthbox Accelerator Program Mentor, Marketing Committee Lead for the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge Launch Smart Clinics, and on the organizing team for Boston TechJam. She holds an MBA from Northeastern University.

The Alpha platform is the only unified mobile and web app development and deployment environment with distinct “no-code” and “low-code” components. Using the Alpha TransForm no-code product, business users and developers can take full advantage of all the capabilities of the smartphone to turn any form into a mobile app in minutes, and power users can add advanced app functionality with Alpha TransForm's built-in programming language. IT developers can use the Alpha Anywhere low-code environment to develop complex web or mobile business apps from scratch, integrate data with existing systems of record and workflows (including data collected via Alpha TransForm), and add additional security or authentication requirements to protect corporate data.

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