RoadRunner

 

RoadRunner was the code-name of a Personal Information Manager (PIM) project that Claris developed but canceled in 1990. It started from an earlier exploratory project code-named "SearchLight." The idea was to build an application which individuals could use for daily scheduling, to-do lists, and personal calendars. It would also have built-in workgroup functionality & would integrate with e-mail, schedulers, and MacProject II.

At the time, we were pretty proud of RoadRunner since it...

Alas, RoadRunner was canceled in 1990 just before reaching alpha as part of Claris' attempt to make a stronger IPO by trimming the projects under development. (Development on SmartForms, MASH*Mail, and AppleWorks GS were also terminated around this time. Our spreadsheet technology, Wingz had just been acquired. It would later ship as Claris Resolve, a rather ironic moniker.) We were told that part of the reasoning behind the cancellation was our lack of a cross-platform solution. Less than a year later, a MacApp-to-Windows product was commercially released. About the same time, another MacApp-based project was started at Claris, MacProject Pro. So much for logic and consistency from the executive staff...

Our "puzzle-piece" product logo design and box art was eventually used when ClarisWorks 1.0 shipped.

Until Claris Organizer appeared in 1995, there wasn't a product on the market which came close to RoadRunner's intended target.

 


MASH*Mail was totally cool e-mail product that Claris was building in 1988. It was canceled in 1989 because our parent company Apple didn't want us competing with its e-mail system which was under development (PowerTalk.) PowerTalk shipped years late and was never widely adopted, and was eventually killed.

 


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