ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿAugust 07, 1997
Corel Releases CorelCentral Beta
(08/07/97; 10:00 a.m. EDT)
By John Fontana, CommunicationsWeek
OTTAWA -- Corel this week released the beta of CorelCentral, an information manager and E-mail application that could add much needed functionality to its popular productivity software suite.
CorelCentral 8 includes a calendar, address book, card file, activity log and help desk. The E-mail application is licensed from Netscape, whose Communicator is now embedded in the software suite.
The company will integrate the new information management functionality into the standard and professional editions of Corel WordPerfect Suite 8, which is scheduled to be released later this summer. The suite includes WordPerfect 8 for word processing, Quattro Pro 8 for spreadsheets and Presentations 8 for presentation graphics.
"The information management helps complete our suite," said Drew Daniels, marketing development manager for CorelCentral. "And Netscape provides a technology we would never develop ourselves, like E-mail and conferencing tools."
The application is the next generation of InfoCentral, which had been shipping with Corel Office. The replacement is targeted squarely at Microsoft's Outlook client, which ships with Office 97, and Lotus Organizer, a part of SmartSuite.
"They are going into a very crowded market, but they need this kind of product in the box," said Amy Wohl, the president of Wohl Associates, in Narberth, Pa. "If you're a Corel user, this looks great, but it will be difficult to attract users who already have a PIM<Picture>."
CorelCentral will run on Windows 95 and NT. The standard edition of WordPerfect Suite 8 with CorelCentral will cost $395; the professional edition is priced at $479. Upgrades will cost $179 for standard and $249 for professional.
Hoping for some more good news.
Rob |
