Celcorp Offers Upgrades, Discounts on 5250 Emulator for Macintosh

by Alex Woodie

As Apple celebrated the 20th anniversary of its venerable Macintosh computer last week, software developer Celcorp announced it would offer discounts of up to 20 percent on its line of terminal emulation software, which lets Macintosh users access OS/400 and mainframe servers. While Macintosh maintains a paltry minority on the world's desktop scene, the legion of Mac users is actually growing, and some companies are adopting it anew.

The Celview for Macintosh product line is a mature emulation package that provides Telnet 5250 and 3270 emulation, FTP, and host printing for Macintosh computers. Celview has a long lineage and is descended from Apple's SNA*ps terminal emulation software, which was acquired by Wall-Data and packaged as MacRumba. Celcorp acquired the rights to MacRumba from Wall-Data in 1996.

There are three versions of the Celview for Macintosh software: the AS/400 Edition, the Mainframe Edition, and the SNA Gateway Edition. The AS/400 and mainframe editions run on the older Mac OS release, Versions 8 through 9, as well as on the newer Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" and Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar" releases. The SNA gateway server features a more extensive set of SNA protocols than the other two editions, but it doesn't support Mac OS X.

The latest release of the software, Celview for Macintosh Version 3.0.3, delivers one major enhancement: it has support for multiple Macintosh keyboards, which, the company says, will benefit people who use Macintosh laptops but may want to use a bigger keyboard when they "dock" their PowerBook on their desktop. Celcorp, which announced Celview 3.0.3 last week at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, is also offering discounts of up to a 20 percent on Celview licenses purchased by March 31, 2004.

While Windows and Linux outshine Macintosh in terms of platform star power, Apple's sleek and integrated desktop computer seems to be enjoying a bit of a renaissance these days. As the Macintosh community celebrates the 20th anniversary of the original Mac computer, launched in 1984, the number of Mac users is growing, according to Apple Computer's president, Steve Jobs. There are more than 9 million users of Mac OS X, Jobs announced at MacWorld last week, and by the end of March, that number is expected to surpass 10 million, giving Macintosh, once again, a 5 percent share of the desktop market.

Demand for Celview emulation software has picked up, says David Etue, Celview's head of marketing and business development. "There's definitely a demand for it, especially with the adoption of Mac OS X," he says. "We're seeing a move back to the Macintosh desktop."

Since the early 1980s, schools at all levels have installed Apple computers--first the groundbreaking Apple II, then the equally revolutionary Macintosh--in classrooms, libraries, and offices for students and teachers to use. That trend in schools continues, but today corporations are increasingly adopting the easy-to-use Mac, as well, Etue says. "It's more significant on the corporate side," he says. "A large greeting card manufacturer is considering a Mac migration. They're considering moving back to Mac in certain areas."

Celcorp has about 400 customers of its Celview for Macintosh software. One of Etue's priorities is to concentrate more sales and marketing resources on the emulation product line, which, he says, has received more attention from potential customers lately. The company, which recently moved its headquarters from Edmonton, Alberta, to Washington, D.C. (although research and development is still done in Alberta), had devoted more resources to Celware, an integration package that provides model-based integration to extend OS/400 and mainframe applications.

Celcorp claims to be the first company to offer 5250 and 3270 emulation software that supported Mac OS X, which is based on Unix. There are 5250 emulators for Macintosh available from a number of other vendors, including B.O.S. Better On-line Solutions, Ericom Software

MochaSoft, NLynx Technologies, and Powerlan USA.

With Celcorp's current discount, licenses for either the Mainframe or AS/400 editions range from $124 to $179, depending on the number of licenses purchased. Licenses for the Celview SNA Gateway are $175. For more information, go to www.celview.com.