Spreadsheets have a come a long, long way over the years, and plenty of companies today are duking it out to build the best one. So we took a look at the evolution of the spreadsheet and which elements make the best one to serve the way you work today and into the future.

1. The Evolution of
The Spreadsheet
The spreadsheet is a modern tool, but its roots are deeply entwined with the history of human
innovation. Learn the spreadsheet’s origin story — and find out what the future may bring.
In the beginning...
It all started with a
need for calculation.
Before Arabic numerals,
people used symbolic
numerals.
These were pretty,
but crummy at
computational math.
THE ABACUS
MMXIV
MCII
XIV
Invented in ancient
times, improved
computation.
But no one could
show their work —
which is bad for business.
THE RISE OF
ACCOUNTING
1400s
Invention of printing enables the spread
of Arabic numerals and the concept of
place value in arithmetic to Europe.
1494
Franciscan monk and mathematician
Luca Pacioli introduces double-entry
bookkeeping to the world of business.
Double-entry bookkeeping spreads
throughout the world via the Venetian
merchants who adopt it.
MATH SPREADS
TO THE MASSES
Around
1622
1800s
William Oughtred invents the slide rule.
Blackboard slates are adopted
widely in U.S. schools.
3+1=4
DAWN OF AUTOMATED
CALCULATION
1885
1914
William Seward
Burroughs files for
his first patent on a
calculating machine.
Calculators are in wide
use among commercial
businesses.
1969
1972
Hewlett Packard introduces
the HP-35, the first advanced-function,
pocket-sized calculator. It’s an instant
sensation.
Sharp launches the popular
battery-powered calculator, the QT-8D.
10,000
units projected
first-year sales
100,000
units actual
first-year sales
THE DESKTOP
COMPUTER ERA
Initially, spreadsheets were all
about efficiency of computation.
1979
VisiCalc is released as the first spreadsheet
program for a computer.
1983
Lotus 1-2-3 is introduced.
1987
Excel and Quattro Pro are introduced.
1990s
Spreadsheets become more user-friendly.
People begin using them to manage
work beyond computational efficiency.
CLOUD CAPABILITIES
DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE
1990s
ISPs greatly expand bandwidth
capabilities, enabling cloud computing
apps to offer business-ready speed and
efficiency.
1999
2000
Amazon Web Services offers a suite of
cloud-based services, including:
Storage
Salesforce.com is a key pioneer of
delivering enterprise applications via
a website - known as cloud computing.
Computation
Human intelligence through
Amazon Mechanical Turk
SPREADSHEETS DOMINATE
THE WORKPLACE
2010
2013
500 MILLION
people worldwide were using
Microsoft Office alone.
BUSINESS EMBRACES
THE CLOUD
94% market penetration rate of Microsoft Office suite
8%
of businesses report no
plans to use cloud-based
applications
49%
Many businesses turn to Google
Apps to provide additional
spreadsheets with much-needed
collaboration capabilities.
43%
say they’re either
heavily using cloud
apps or running at least
some applications in
the cloud
are developing or
beginning to implement
cloud projects
Yet the biggest spreadsheet providers continue
to add features focused on data analysis
Also
60% of spreadsheets have no formulas — meaning
spreadsheets are used to manage much more than
just computational work
So spreadsheets are still overwhelmingly used
to manage work, and cloud-based collaboration is
firmly entrenched across enterprises.
CHARTING THE FUTURE
Tomorrow’s spreadsheets must satisfy
Collaborating
in the cloud
Managing tasks,
not just numbers
Organizing everything
in one place
Using familiar,
intuitive tools
The spreadsheet is here to stay. The only question is …
Who will make the best one?
Try the spreadsheet application of the future now at www.smartsheet.com/future
Sources:
Gleeson-White, Jane. Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Shaped the Modern World. W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcalculator.htm
http://americanhistory.si.edu/teachingmath/html/release.htm
http://www.thecalculatorsite.com/articles/units/history-of-the-calculator.php
http://books.google.com/books?id=Gj4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://www.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/book/sheets/sheet.html
http://www.dailytech.com/Office+2010+to+Launch+Today+Microsoft+Owns+94+Percent+of+the+Market/article18360.htm
http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/A-history-of-cloud-computing
http://www.enterpriseappstoday.com/management-software/can-google-apps-unseat-microsoft-in-the-enterprise.html
http://www.rightscale.com/news_events/press_releases/2013/rightscale-2013-state-of-the-cloud-survey-reveals-a-cloud-value-imperative.php
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-best-new-features-in-excel-2013/#.