Numbers is a spreadsheet application developed by Apple Inc. as part of the iWork productivity suite alongside Keynote and Pages.

Numbers also includes features from the seminal Lotus Improv, notably the use of formulas based on ranges rather than cells.

At its introductory demonstration, Steve Jobs pitched a more usable interface and better control over the appearance and presentation of tables of data.

In the traditional model, the table is the first-class citizen of the system, acting as both the primary interface for work and as the container for other types of media like charts or digital images.

Quattro Pro commonly introduced the idea of multiple sheets in a single book, allowing further subdivision of the data; Excel implements this as a set of tabs along the bottom of the workbook.

[10] During the development of Improv, the Lotus team discovered that these sorts of formulas were both difficult to use and resistant to future changes in the spreadsheet layout.

[11] Their solution was to make the user explicitly define the semantic content of the sheets — that the B column contained "cars sold".

The downside to Improv's approach is that it demanded more information from the user up-front and was considered less suitable for "quick and dirty" calculations or basic list building.

[12] Numbers uses a hybrid approach to the creation of formulas, supporting the use of named data like Improv, but implementing them in-sheet like Excel.

However, if the user types a header into the table, something one normally does as a matter of course, Numbers uses this to automatically construct a named range for the cells on that row or column.

One noteworthy example of this is a sidebar that contains the sum, average, and other basic calculations for the current selection in the active table.

Pivots were introduced in Improv and were manipulated by dragging the category headers,[16] allowing the user to quickly rotate rows into columns or vice versa.

Instead, Numbers places pop-up menus in the column headers allowing the user to collapse multiple rows into totals (sums, averages, etc.)

Numbers 5.2, released on September 17, 2018,[17] further improves on these features by adding Smart Categories, allowing the user to "quickly organize and summarize tables to gain new insights".

Opening an Excel sheet in Numbers results in a display with smooth fonts, a clean layout, and color selections.

They did point out several common issues, especially problems exporting to Excel and the inability to "lock" cells to prevent them from moving when the table is scrolled.

[27] In their review of Version 5, MacWorld concluded that "Numbers 5 for Mac advances the app, making it more useful for more purposes with less effort, but it’s still a shadow of full-feature business spreadsheet programs.