PC Magazine Presents Awards for Technical Excellence

October 22, 1991 — Innovation and achievement were celebrated in Las Vegas Monday night at what is often called ”the Oscars of the computer industry” – the Eighth Annual Awards for Technical Excellence hosted by PC Magazine.

Eight PC products won awards for Technical Excellence and three people received commendations for individual achievement. The eight product winners were: Go Corporation’s PenPoint in the Standards and Operating Systems category; Microsoft Visual Basic from Microsoft Corp.  in the Development Tools category; Stacker from Stac Electronics in the Utilities Software category; FoxPro 2.0 from Fox Software Inc. in the Application Software category; the T2200SX from Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. for the Portables category; Lexmark International Inc.’s IBM LaserPrinter 10 in the Printer category; the Altair Wireless Ethernet from Motorola Inc. in the Connectivity category; and SimEarth by Maxis Inc. in the After Hours category.

The category winners this year exemplify an overall industry trend towards significantly simpler-to-use products that emphasize graphical rather than text-based interaction with the computer.

PC Magazine Editor-in-Chief Michael Miller noted, ”Over the past few years we’ve seen products add a mind-boggling number of features and capabilities as well as achieve incredible speeds. This year, on the 10th anniversary of the PC, manufacturers are emphasizing features that respond to an understanding of how people really work and how this translates into the way they use PCs and software.

”Users want to take advantage of the wealth of features available in these powerful products immediately. They want to have these capabilities when they need them, regardless of what else they are working on, what other software they are using, and where the information they need is stored. This was the promise of the industry at its inception 10 years ago, and these award-winning products illustrate the trend that manufacturers are finally delivering on that promise,” Miller added.

A primary example of this trend is the winner in the Standards and Operating Systems category. Fully in response to those users who want to handwrite information directly into their personal computer rather than use a keyboard or mouse, Go Corp. has created the PenPoint operating system. With features that include handwriting translation, shape recognition, and ”gestures” or symbols that perform tasks such as inserting and deleting characters, users can now truly adapt notebook-sized computers to fit their style of working.

As the PC Magazine editors noted, ”Go Corporation has laid the groundwork for a new way of computing.”

PC software developers also use software tools to develop their products, and PC Magazine editors have recognized Microsoft Visual Basic from Microsoft Corp. for dramatically simplifying and accelerating the development process for Microsoft Windows. This product is so simple-to-use, in fact, that competent PC users can now develop their own software programs. This presents new possibilities to users, allowing them to work with computers in ways they never imagined to be within their power.

Visual Basic lets people interested in developing programs and applications for Windows take advantage of the same features that Windows offers its users – a more natural graphical user interface and the ability to quickly move back and forth between programs.

Utility software, more so than almost any other category of software, has made strides to enable users to maximize the time it takes to do their work – writing, editing, calculating, sorting, designing – and minimize the time spent managing their computer. This year’s winner in the Utilities Software category illustrates this concern for user’s time: Stacker from Stac Electronics. Unnoticed by the user, Stacker compresses programs and data files on the hard disk, effectively doubling the amount of useable space. The program automatically expands the files into memory when they are needed, freeing users from concerns about running out of hard disk space.

”This year, the best applications software on any platform are those programs that, in addition to new functionality, make everyday tasks faster and easier,” noted the PC Magazine editors.

The winner in the Applications Software category, FoxPro 2.0 from Fox Software, shows how an application can continue to grow faster and more accessible. The editors commended FoxPro 2.0 for its speed over many functions, and its innovative relational query-by-example that allows users to simply select databases, fields, groups and format to immediately extract the information they need.

As PCs have become easier to use, users have become increasingly dependent on them to do more things, more often. As a result, the portable computer market exploded in 1991, outpacing all other market segments. The award winner this year, the T2200SX from Toshiba America Information Services, is a laptop that has capably handled all of the aspects of portable computing that concern users most — a sensible, easy-to-use keyboard layout; overall ergonomics, a big, bright VGA display; a long-lasting battery; a rugged case; and top-notch performance from a 386/SX.

In today’s visually-oriented business world, a document can’t just sound good; it has got to look good as well. As users demand better presentation-making products for their desktop, printers become a primary focus for them.

The IBM LaserPrinter 10 from Lexmark International Inc. gives users great-looking pages at a quick 10 page-per-minute speed, and high resolution graphics allowing users to produce top quality graphic presentations at their desk. With optional 600 dpi resolution, fast speed and competitive pricing, PC Magazine editors found this printer to be one of the hottest single-user printers around. Inside, the machine is a model of simplicity, boasting a clean design with few components, making it a reliable, solid performer.

Perhaps the area with the greatest distance yet to go before delivering the type of performance and ease that users want, connectivity products have also made more progress than any other category during the last year. More than 50 percent of the PC used in business today are in some way connected, and the promise of invisibly accessing information from hundreds, if not thousands, of different databases, and systems across different kinds of computers and software, is now much closer to becoming reality thanks to the Altair Wireless Ethernet from Motorola Inc. The Altair Ethernet uses low power radio as the transmission means, augmenting wires and cables to the offices. This allows users to change offices quickly, without constant rewiring.

The faster, more powerful computers that are satisfying users’ demands for simpler, more effective business solutions, also allow entertainment software manufacturers to use to their advantage the features found in the best business software.

Using the most sophisticated graphics, music, sound effects, and windows that let users access enormous quantities of information, simulation software provides hours of creative diversion for PC users.

This year’s winner in the After Hours category, SimEarth by Maxis Inc., incorporates these features into a rich simulation that has users create and revise planets, specify lifeforms, move mountains and destroy continents.

Philippe Kahn, the colorful CEO of PC software manufacturer Borland International, was presented with the Man of the Year Award. Earlier this year, Borland acquired Ashton-Tate, forming a $500 million company and establishing Kahn as an even more formidable force to be reckoned with in the PC industry.

The Awards for Lifetime Achievement were presented to Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. Bricklin and Frankston developed VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet product, in 1979. VisiCalc and subsequent spreadsheet software such as Lotus 1-2-3, were the first major software applications to effectively demonstrate to businesses the extraordinary capabilities and benefits of personal computers. VisiCalc, immediately recognized as a valuable tool, was just the push many people needed to purchase their first PC.

Philip ”Don” Estridge received a special posthumous tribute for his part in creating the first personal computer 10 years ago. As the former president of IBM’s Entry Level Systems Division and one of the chief architects of the IBM PC, Estridge helped move the PC out of the realm of hobbyists and into businesses everywhere. Moreover, Estridge’s insistence on an open architecture for the IBM PC made it not only a desirable investment for businesses, but also a safe one.  This vision allowed PCs to explode into a huge industry over the last decade.

PC Magazine is the circulation leader among computer magazines.  It provides in-depth, comparative PC product evaluations to a circulation of more than 800,000 business readers. PC Magazine is published twice-monthly by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.

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