NEW YORK (IDG) -- A host of new and upgraded software applications at MacWorld Expo last week showed that the Macintosh platform continues to attract diverse developers.

New releases on display run the gamut of application types, and include multimedia authoring tools, e-mail enhancement products, general office productivity software, utilities, and entertainment-related products.

At the opening keynote address Thursday, interim Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs stressed the number and diversity of applications shipped since the company's hit consumer machine, the iMac, was released last August.

Stressing the relationship between the success of the iMac and the number of applications available for the Macintosh platform, Jobs said that in the past year, 3935 "new and renewed" applications have shipped for the Mac platform.

"Developers have recommitted to the Macintosh," Jobs said.

In the 1998-99 holiday season, the iMac was listed by several market research firms as the top-selling model in the desktop computer market in retail stores.

Here at MacWorld, major vendors such as Microsoft, Lotus Development, Intuit, and Symantec gave the Mac a vote of confidence by announcing software upgrades for existing products. But there is also a wide variety of new software here from smaller players.

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An app sampler

Among new and upgraded applications unveiled here:

Lotus announced plans to ship Lotus Notes Release 5 (R5), the latest version of the groupware system, for the Mac this quarter. Notes for Messaging will cost $55; the full-blown Notes for Collaboration, $69.

Intuit introduced Quicken Deluxe 2000, the newest version of its personal finance management software, for the Mac. The application will be generally available in retail stores throughout the U.S. in early September 1999, at $59.95, minus a $20.00 rebate for upgrades.

Symantec announced Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh version 6.0, including improved scanning ability and faster performance. It will be shipped in September, priced at $69.95 or $29.95 for upgrades. Also, Version 5.0 of Norton Utilities for Macintosh, including an enhanced Norton Disk Doctor, is slated to be shipped in September priced at $99.95; upgrades are priced at $49.95.

999software.com, the self-styled "Internet Discount Software Superstore," is offering more than 400 software titles, mostly entertainment related. A variety of software bundles, including a range of titles, can be bought at $9.99 per package.

Electrifier announced that its Electrifier Pro Web-site multimedia authoring software now works with Flash, MP3, and Apple's QuickTime 4 streaming audio and video content. It also announced that it is cutting the price on the product by $200, to $395.

DataViz said it will release its MacLinkPlus Deluxe version 11 in September and that the software adds new file conversion and encoding capabilities. The software, designed to help convert files between Mac and Windows systems, adds the ability to convert files from the latest versions of Microsoft Word and Excel 2000, AppleWorks/ClarisWorks 5, Microsoft Works 4.5, and WordPerfect 3.5e.

The software also adds compression/decompression abilities for Aladdin Systems' StuffIt 5.0. The new version of MacLinkPLus is priced at $39.95 for users upgrading from earlier versions. Standard retail pricing was not immediately available.

QDesign previewed MVP, software that is designed to let computers running either MacOS or Windows systems create, play, and manage music encoded in either MP3 or the company's own QDesign formats. MVP also lets users play back music encoded in WAV and AIFF formats, and plays back music videos in QuickTime and AVI formats.

The product will be available for public beta test, initially to QuickTime 4 users, on July 26, from the company's Web site. The general release is set for late August, priced at $19.95.

Softlink shipped eMail inChorus for the Mac. The software is designed to let users add multimedia annotation to text e-mail. It is priced at $49.95.

Sierra Studios, a division of Sierra On-Line, announced it is making inroads into the Mac world by releasing its Pharaoh strategy game, part of its three-part Caesar trilogy, on both Mac and PC systems by the end of the year. In addition, Caesar III is now available on the Mac, and Half-Life, a first-person action/adventure game, will be released for the Mac in the fourth quarter. Pricing was not immediately available.

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