Excel supports advanced charting and plotting features not available in Apple Numbers, however, Apple’s charts are more visually stimulating (as seen below). Overall Excel provides an overwhelming amount of functions in comparison to Apple’s Numbers, but it can be argued that they both appeal to different spreadsheet users. Apple Numbers was specifically made for Mac users whereas Microsoft Excel functions on both Mac and Windows computers. Before any comparison can be made between the two spreadsheet programs, it must be first considered which computer they are being accessed from. Microsoft Excel has 400 functions in 11 categories compared to Apple’s Numbers possessing only 262 functions in 10 categories (categories for both spreadsheet programs include date/time, text, statistical, financial and engineering, etc). In 2007 Apple released Numbers 1.0, adding to the growing rivalry between the two technology giants.
There are now a variety of spreadsheets available, with Microsoft’s Excel leading the market share with over 750 million users worldwide.
