DataViz Cancels Plans for webOS DTG

Posted By: Kris Keilhack Saturday, September 4, 2010 12:50:09 PM

documents to go webos pre One-time Palm OS stalwart DataViz has just made the major announcement that they are abandoning plans to develop a full version of Documents To Go for WebOS. DataViz announced the cancellation via their Facebook page on Friday:

We regret to announce we have made the difficult decision to cancel development for Docs To Go for WebOS. Unfortunately we weren't able to overcome technical hurdles and that, in combination with another vendor announcing they will bring a competitive product to market, has lead us to this disappointing conclusion.

While this move is in no way surprising, especially given yesterday's Quickoffice story, it does appear to show a tremendous lack of faith in WebOS' newfound chances under the stewardship and financial backing of HP. The fact that Palm's WebOS SDK has been available for well over a year, and the WebOS 2.0 SDK was just released this week makes this decision even more puzzling. Had DataViz made this announcement prior to HP's acquisition of Palm, their decision would likely be far more palatable to the many longtime Palm OS DTG users eagerly awaiting the next-generation release of the product. In fact, in July of 2009, Dataviz formally promised that a full version of DTG was coming later in the year.

As of this writing, there is no indication if new WebOS devices will continue to ship with the Dataviz's read-only DocumentsToGo viewers in ROM or if they will be phased out. The full text of DataViz's announcement can be found here.

Update: RIM has announced that they have purchased DataViz.

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Hardly puzzling...

mabsut @ 9/4/2010 2:00:08 PM #

1. Docs2Go was a standard app on the old Palm phones. Palm abandoned them. Why would they invest resources again without a clear return of investment?
2. Anyway, the pig might fly. So we rather promise an office suite than do nothing. Keeps the competition in check as well.
3. The pig didn't fly. And come on, it never will. Anyone who still believes in Web OS at this point is plain crazy. So forget about yesterdays promises and focus on tomorrows markets. Which is iOS.

RE: Hardly puzzling...

hkklife @ 9/4/2010 2:26:03 PM #

I wouldn't necessarily say Palm abandoned them. I would think it was more of a case of two feuding companies being either too greedy or too incompetent to work a solution out.

Palm honestly supported Dataviz quite strongly in the earlier days, but you could make a case that Dataviz addressed a lot of missing functionality in Palm's devices. But Palm bundled DTG on the CD from the Palm m500 starting in 2001. They continued bundling them on CD and then in ROM all the way up to the final Centro.

And let's face it, DTG began becoming a much less comeplling upgrade for Garnet users starting around, oh, version 8 or so. Versions 9-11 were more of a cash grab byDataviz than anything else, IMHO.

The Pre & Pixi came with the DTG viewers since nothing else was available at the time. Who knows who is to blame for that mishap? All I know is the lack of ANY fully MS Office-compatible document-editing suite certainly aided in my decision to not purchase a WebOS device (though not the main factor).

I have a distinct feeling that this situation will be much better in the future with HP and QuickOffice in the mix.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro-> Verizon Moto Droid X + Palm TX

RE: Hardly puzzling...

mabsut @ 9/6/2010 12:25:03 PM #

It's true that DataViz benefitted from Palms support for a long time, and they constantly tried to get money out of my pocket in a mostly annoying manner (for example, not including an "open file" feature in standard DTG).
But Palm also cancelled the entire platform, and DataViz, like so many others, had to develop from scratch to create DTG for the Pre. I just find it pretty obvious why that has not happened.

Stifling the competition

ywk69 @ 9/4/2010 5:31:41 PM #

DataViz has been bought over by RIM. That's the reason they are pulling the plug on supporting WebOS. They may well do the same with iOS and Android.

RE: Stifling the competition

richf @ 9/5/2010 5:33:55 AM #

Hey, this Dataviz outfit picked my pocket too many times during their years of Garnet support. Every couple months it was 30 bucks then the last straw was that shitty download insurance fee. That's when I dropped out. But then they got me again with the Droid but only for 10 bucks. I agree that support will probably be dropped for Android and iOs once Rim gets ahold of the reins firmly. They got greedy and deserve a little competition, good riddance as far as I'm concerned.
Have a nice day!
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->Pilot Pro->IIIe->IIIc->M500->M505->M515->TC->T3->T5->Treo 650P->Treo 700P->Droid>Pre Plus

Quickoffice and web os 2.0

rcartwright @ 9/5/2010 6:16:22 AM #

In addition to the acqusition by RIM, the second reason I suspect was that Palm is incorporating Quickoffice in web os 2.0 rather than DTG.
P.S. I have to question why the author of this article did not report the RIM purachase.
"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves up
and continue as if nothing had happened."
- Winston Churchill

RE: Quickoffice and web os 2.0

hkklife @ 9/5/2010 10:13:27 AM #

I did the news item immediately upon seeing the news online about the change in status of Dataviz's DTG for WebOS on their website and Facebook page. The story about the acquisition by RIM didn't hit until later that evening, long after this story had been written, submitted, and was ready to be posted online. And as of this writing, they still haven't a formal announcement of it.

Later, upon seeing that the RIM + Dataviz looked to be the real deal (such as some Dataviz employees changing their employer status to RIM), I did a separate news item on Saturday that should be up momentarily. Remember, things are a bit slow this weekeend due to Ryan's absence and everyone having plans for the holiday weekend.

I definitely concur with your thought about Quickoffice likely being incorporated into WebOS 2.0. I also am in hearty agreement with Richf & Pat about the general suckinesss about all of the recent versions of DTG. They were also one of the first companies to start offering that lousy "pay more for download insurance" scheme. Though, like Richf, they did get one final bit of $ out of me for DTG on Android but only because it was soooo reasonably priced relative to the Palm OS version. I've already upgraded from a Droid 1 to a Droid X and thanks to the Android Market install, not had nearly the headaches I did when having to transfer my DTG Premium license from one Palm OS device to the other.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro-> Verizon Moto Droid X + Palm TX

RE: Quickoffice and web os 2.0

rcartwright @ 9/5/2010 6:39:10 PM #

@hkklife:

Thank you for responding to my question. I have to confess that I was still in a "Release the red matter!" mood when I posted on PIC, and I have to say that I read so much "Palm is doomed, bring out your Pres" vibe by some commenters (who for some reason just keep coming back) I was a little shock that it seemed to be creeping into the reporting too. Its one thing to call out palm when it screws up, it just seems to bew another when you look for the grey cloud behind the silver lining.

Something I have seen in other conversation threads is that DTG really makes no effort to conform to the UI of its platform. I wondered if you cared to comment on that, because that might well be another reason Palm ditched them for Quickoffice.
"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves up
and continue as if nothing had happened."
- Winston Churchill

RE: Quickoffice and web os 2.0

gmayhak @ 9/5/2010 7:47:10 PM #

"it just seems to bew another when you look for the grey cloud behind the silver lining."

Isn't that exactly what you did with Kris's article ?

Palm, as we knew it, is in deep trouble. HP's success with mobile consumer products ended with their scientific calculators 20 years ago. Palm OS is gone and there are new kids on the block now. We all hope for a miraculous comeback but in the meantime we relate our experiences with other OSs with the people we've talked with for years on this forum. When/if WebOS materializes as a challenge to Android or iOS we'll certainly be raving about it again.

Gary
Tech Center Labs
www.talestuff.com
www.iTalentProductions.com

RE: Quickoffice and web os 2.0

rcartwright @ 9/6/2010 4:10:42 AM #

I probably should have kept the first draft of my post, I actually had some discussion about how I like sites that are willing to call out Palm if they have screwed up rather than being mindless fanboys (ie the Apple user who venerates the paper cup that Jobs drank from at Macworld many years ago) vs some people at PIC who seem to metaphoricly delight at wringing the last bit of bad spin they can get out of any palm news.

My issue with Kris's article was it seemed to deliberately omit the RIM purchase of DV. As he explained, it was a timing issue. I fully understand that as someone who had to make print deadlines. I was just a little suprised that Kris was not in the position to update the article as PreCentral did.
"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves up
and continue as if nothing had happened."
- Winston Churchill