The History Of WordStar

If you're as old as me, you probably have fond memories of this old word processor. A Potted History of WordStar.

WordStar rapidly declined following WordPerfect's appearance. MicroPro had failed to improve on the early WordStar, leaving it outdated. Their attempt to rectify the situation with WordStar 2000 was a complete disaster and only alienated the user base further - some of whom migrated to NewWord. WordStar 4 (NewWord plus minor additions) was too late, WordPerfect had already overtaken WordStar on the premise of easier use, and by providing better customer support...

Then with the advent of Microsoft's Windows 3.0 and its wholesale adoption, WordStar was doomed. WordStar for Windows arrived too late and its updates from version 1.0, to 1.1, 1.5, and finally 2.0 were too slow to appear - it didn't stand a chance, which saw its price slashed to around 10-20% of its original price within two short years. It also didn't work in a way familiar to WordStar for DOS users, who had hoped for a Windows version of the original DOS program, and so saw little sales advantage from their switching to Windows.