One can hardly blame the puzzled clerk at the local computer store for knowing nothing about Agenda. Lotus no longer actively markets Agenda and never put much effort into its sale and distribution in the first place. When Kapor left Lotus Development Corporation, he took with him Lotus' enthusiasm for Agenda. Victor Cruz, spokesman for Lotus Development Corp., says Lotus stopped developing Agenda after selling only 100,000 copies. They thought Agenda was too difficult to learn, so they bought a no-brainer program called the Threads Organizer from a company in the United Kingdom.
Threads looks like a notebook and a day calendar, so it is obvious what it does.
Agenda is more subtle. Lotus has sold 450,000 copies of Threads. Agenda might be a little complex at first, but for the curios, it is a completely flexible tool. For its small community of users, it is a well kept secret. James Fallows, political analyst and author of Looking at the Sun, a study of Asian economies, praised Agenda in The Atlantic magazine in May of last year.