Rows, a spreadsheet software company, has released a beta version of a new desktop app in an attempt to challenge Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets’ supremacy.
The beta was launched in secret in December 2021, but the company has now made it public with native apps both for Windows and macOS, according to a news site.
Until recently, Rows has only been offered as a web application, which has limited its capabilities. Nevertheless, the company claims that the new desktop build would accommodate complicated and large-scale sheets as effectively as the industry leaders, and also give a platform for Rows-only functionality.
The Rows initiative is based on the idea that the spreadsheet software industry is ready for upheaval. According to the company, the stranglehold of Microsoft and Google has resulted in a lack of creativity, keeping the way clear for a determined opponent.
“Let’s just be honest. “Spreadsheets stink,” remarked Rows co-founder and CEO. “The corporate world continues to rely on them, but they are dragging us back.” Rows are integrating the well-known spreadsheet into the modern workplace.”
The company has made no secret of its desire to dethrone the leaders. Rows recently rented an outdoor advertising spot near Microsoft’s offices and put a display that read: “Hey Microsoft, your spreadsheet has been at this for 36 years.” It’s time to pull the plug.” Google suffered the same fate.
To find out what sets Rows apart from other spreadsheet applications, a news site chatted with the person who is in charge of the desktop app’s development. Though Rows has all of the basic spreadsheet capabilities – cells, rows, columns, functions, tables, and so on – it varies from Excel and Sheets in a few key areas, he explained.
Most notably, Rows has concentrated on the ways to relate 3rd party APIs into spreadsheets with minimal to no knowledge of coding. In reality, this implies that someone may simply import data from platforms as disparate as Twitter, or Google Analytics into their spreadsheets without needing to know Excel.
Rows spreadsheets may also be set to upgrade automatically at predetermined times. in a demonstration it was explained how to build a spreadsheet to upgrade every 1 minute with fresh pricing data from the Amazon store, thereby providing real-time price comparison.
Another distinguishing thing is being able to convert Rows spreadsheets into simple web applications that can later be distributed to the wider populace. For instance, somebody might convert a Rows sheet into a landing page that takes client data without needing to tinker with HTML and JavaScript or subscribe to a 3rd party service.
Rows’ fundamental issue is the degree to which Microsoft and Google products are ingrained in the modern workforce, generating a platform impact that can be hard to accomplish.
Excel and Sheets are also both tiny components of much larger software and service packages that include emailing, development tools, calendaring, collaboration tools, cloud services, VPNs, as well as other features.
In the case of Microsoft, the corporation is capable of creating interconnections among services that stretch all the way to Windows OS, which is used by the majority of business PCs.
As a consequence, companies like Rows should persuade prospective customers that their product is not only comparable to existing applications but also adds enough benefit to warrant the additional line item on the balance sheet.
Rows is presently a bug gnawing at the feet of the titans, with less than 4,000 weekly visitors. Despite the severe challenges, the customer base has grown fast ever since the beginning of 2022, and the company is optimistic about its future development potential.
When we inquired why Rows feels their spreadsheet software will thrive where everyone else has faltered, a news site was informed that shifting market trends, along with innovative products, had created a golden opportunity for the firm.
“We find indications that our two main advancements (built-in connectors and sharing as a site) are powerful enough factors to convince huge groups to embrace a new spreadsheet,” stated Rows’ Head of Development.
“In the last fifteen years, there have been three extremely significant shifts in work setup (mobile-first, APIs and the rise of SaaS, and async first), but we’re the 1st firm to design a true spreadsheet for this new environment.”
Rows will depend heavily on viral marketing to narrow the gap between Microsoft and Google. In other terms, the firm plans to just let the service do the talking.
Rows, like other SaaS products, are offered for free to anyone who wishes to test the water. Even though the desktop beta lacks a few capabilities (such as charts), the firm claims it will reach parity with the online platform by the end of 2022.
