We'll have a bucket full of DataViz please and can you make that to go...
The one app that BlackBerry users have always moaned about not having, is an app that gives you the ability to actually edit those darn Microsoft Office files that people keep attaching to the emails. Luckily someone else managed to rectify this sometime ago, and DataViz have been making rather a lot of cash out of RIM with their suite of Office creation and editing apps “Documents To Go” that fills the gap.
The problem has been that buying “Documents To Go” has frankly been a pit of a pain. It’s not available on the BlackBerry Application store, and in order to buy it you need to know the model number of your BlackBerry, and most users don’t know the model number – errr it’s a BlackBerry. You need to be allowed to download apps from third-parties – most corporates switch this off as standard – and you need to pay for it and then get reimbursed from the company. In short a pain in the arse.
So it’s no surprise to learn that at last RIM have done the decent thing, and bought DataViz for an undisclosed amount. According to DigitalDaily “RIM has acquired some of the assets of DataViz and hired the majority of its employees to focus on supporting the BlackBerry platform,” the company said in a statement given to Digital Daily. “Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the transaction was not material to RIM in the context of RIM’s financial results.”
So now hopefully we can look forward to getting Documents To Go as standard, and for free, and getting it on to the useless BlackBerry Application store. Plus some of DataViz’s other whizzy technologies might also find themselves moving into the BlackBerry’s function list.
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