In what looks to be a change of heart, Borland International Inc has announced a new version of its low- end dBase database. The company has looked set to axe the database for some time, with indications of a decline in its commitment to the product going back to last year (CI No 3,026). But now the company is to launch Visual dBase 7 for Windows 95 and NT. The new 32-bit version of the database development tool will appear at some point in the middle of this quarter and the company says it is a fast and easy way for corporate developers and businesses to build business database applications. Borland apparently took the decision to release the new version after examining the business it was generating and realizing there was still a market out there. Borland hit a black spot a couple of years ago when it announced it was axing around 40% of its work force, some 650 people (CI No 2,584) and last made a dBase release at the beginning of August last year, with version 5.5 (CI No 2,722). Gillian Webster, Borland’s director of product marketing for Visual dBase and Intrabuilder said she didn’t think the company had ever decided not to put another version of the product out, but that it just took longer than it probably should have done. Release 7 is the first dBase release to go beyond 16-bits. Webster said dBase users have stayed loyal to the product and know what they like, and it has taken them quite a while to get the systems required to run a higher bit version. There is still a possibility that Borland will release a Unix version, but no firm decision has been made. But the company says it has no plans to abandon the product in the future and Webster says there will be more releases in the not too distant future.
