[4] Apple decided to allow the programs to "wither" so that the third-party developers would have time to write suitable replacements.

[citation needed] Eventually Apple decided the only solution was to spin off the products to a third party of its own creation, forming Claris in 1987.

[citation needed] At first Claris provided only trivial upgrades, limited to making the products continue to run on newer versions of the Macintosh operating system.

[citation needed] In 1990, Apple decided that Claris should remain a wholly owned subsidiary, as opposed to being completely spun off in an initial public offering.

After rebranding in a style similar to FileMaker, MacDraw, and MacWrite, it was released in 1991 as ClarisWorks, and became another huge success for the company.

After a lengthy series of ups and downs, this product was eventually taken back by Apple in 1998 and rebranded as AppleWorks (for Macintosh).

[citation needed] In September 1992, Claris released a cross-platform version of FileMaker for both the Mac and Windows; except for a few platform-specific functions, the program's features and user interface were the same.

The main ClarisWorks development team left Claris, disillusioned with the product and the market, and founded Gobe Software, which produced a Claris-like office suite for BeOS.

By 1998 the transition was complete and the company renamed itself as FileMaker Inc. Claris's only other major product, ClarisWorks, was taken back by Apple to become AppleWorks.

[citation needed] During DevCon 2019, the developers' conference, FileMaker announced it was resurrecting the Claris name and re-branding commenced.

[citation needed] In the late 1980s, Claris began a major upgrade effort, rewriting all of its products to use a more modern and common user interface.

These products were part of a new effort to diversify Claris and no longer chase the "office" market which, by this point, was considered a lost cause.

[citation needed] The Bento database product aimed at home users or small businesses was released in 2008 and discontinued in 2013.