Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Profiteering To Go

Can anyone explain to me how a couple of new features (like Office 2007 read-only support) warrants DataViz charging us loyal users to upgrade to Documents To Go 10?

If you were to look at DataViz' own support page, you'd see it looks a little light for features:
  • Now supports Microsoft Office 2007
    • View Microsoft Word 2007 files and attachments - read-only
    • View Microsoft Excel 2007 files and attachments - read-only
  • Various bug fixes
That's it? Don't get me started on how DataViz is charging for "Various bug fixes" when their previous product, Documents To Go 9 remained unpatched for the entire 6 months it was on the market.

Now, I've been a loyal Documents To Go user since the first Mac incarnation (version 2.002!). The suite has gone through changes that turned it from a basic "view my documents on my Palm" application to a full fledged "who needs a laptop" suite. It seems to me that DataViz must feel the Palm OS market is dying out, and they want to milk us for all we're worth before we jump ship. It's not fair, and upgrading from 9 right now is not a really wise investment at this time.

3 comments:

  1. liked your list of fives...

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  2. I see your points but I think you are downplaying the importance of Office 2007 a bit here. I also feel like there were a few facts that were left out that are quite important to note so folks don't get the wrong idea:

    - Keep in mind this is the first app to offer support for Office 2007 files (Microsoft's devices do not support Office 2007 yet).

    - I can speak to the fact that DataViz has received hundreds of requests (demands, in some cases) for Office 2007 support over the past few months. It seems a good business decision to appease those users as much as possible and as soon as possible rather than making them wait a few more months for view and edit capabilities together.

    - What you are actually paying for is the ability to view, edit, and create Office 07 files (along with Vista support and some bug fixes). The catch is that some of these features are not yet available. When they are available, anyone who purchases now gets that update *at no additional cost* (this was made clear in the press release).

    The decision to upgrade (or not upgrade) is up to the customer. If the features being added are not of value to them, they're free to continue using an older version. I just think it's important that people have all the facts before making their choice. Thanks.

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  3. Jason,

    Thanks for your feedback.

    - Office 2007 native support? I'm all for it. However, I don't know of any company sending out *only* docx or xlsx files yet -- the formats are much too new. Internally, that could be a different story.

    - Yes, but currently you'd be paying for view only. Since I haven't played with it yet, I'm not sure if this means these new file formats can be put into standard doc or xls files. The ability to edit comes later? Great -- why not wait for it to catch up before releasing something that sounds like it was rushed to market?

    - Technically, I can use any copy of DTG I want. However, support for my older copy will run out, and the sweetheart deal for upgrading (if I recall correctly) will expire as well. They make it an offer you can't refuse to upgrade. Since I don't use Office 2007 at work yet, and Office 2008 for Mac isn't out yet -- I'd be paying $30 for bug fixes.

    //k

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