During the early seasons of Computer Chronicles, Ashton-Tate was one of the Big Three business software companies together with Microsoft and Lotus Development Corporation. Ashton-Tate made its name with dBase II, a database application that quickly became the gold standard in its field. Unfortunately, Ashton-Tate never managed to grow its success beyond its core product, so when later versions of dBase failed to meet customer expectations, the company declined into irrelevancy.