Apple's Spreadsheet Application: Lasso [Update]

PCMag publishes a ThinkSecret report about an upcoming spreadsheet application from Apple.

According to their sources, Apple is working on a spreadsheet component to iWork '07 to accompany Keynote 4 and Pages 3 updates. Codenamed "Lasso", the new spreadsheet is not expected to be as feature-packed as Excel, however, it is said to be a step up from the Appleworks spreadsheet module that was last updated in 2000:

Lasso's function editor will sport more than 200 hundred functions that will span a number of needs, from financial to statistical and possibly niche applications such as engineering, sources say.

Internet connectivity, Excel file-format compatibility, and an easy interface are listed as other features. Pre-built templates for common tasks, such as, personal finance, business, personal planning and more are also reportedly bundled.

Apple's Keynote and Pages applications are also expected to see updates and have been detailed in previous reports (Keynote '07, Pages 3). ThinkSecret previously had provided some preliminary information on Apple's spreadsheet application which had been dubbed "Charts" at that time.

Over the past two years, Apple has introduced iWork updates at the Macworld San Francisco conference in January. The next Macworld Expo takes place between January 8th and 12th, 2007 in San Francisco.

Update: This report is a republishing of a previous ThinkSecret report.