RIM boosts apps business with DataViz
Reported to have bought maker of Documents to Go, set to cancel non-RIM versions
Published: 7 September, 2010
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RIM is stepping up its acquisition spree in an attempt to meet the rising challenges to its smartphone lead. Its latest purchase is reportedly DataViz, developers of the Documents to Go productivity application for BlackBerry.
The deal was detected by the Crackberry.com blog when it noticed that DataViz employees had updated their LinkedIn profiles to RIM. It has not yet been confirmed but is thought to have been worth about $50m in cash. It would point to RIM strengthening its hold on features and applications that give real differentiation and value to the BlackBerry platform, as it comes under increasing pressure from other smartphones and lower cost corporate email services.
RIM may have been prompted to swoop on DataViz when the smaller firm announced plans to port its key application to webOS, now owned by Hewlett-Packard. That project was cancelled last week and other non-BlackBerry versions - for iPhone, Android, Maemo and Windows Mobile - are likely to be discontinued.
Documents to Go enables users to edit, create and view Word and Excel files remotely via smartphones.
The DataViz acquisition follows just weeks after RIM bought mobile apps store specialist Cellmania, to boost the BlackBerry App World storefront. Last year it bought WebKit browser maker Torch Mobile, and showed off the results in the new browser that comes with BlackBerry OS 6.0, while earlier this year it purchased QNX, which focused on in-car software, but whose technology is likely to form the basis of a new tablet software platform from RIM. Many analysts believe RIM should shout more loudly about its applications, and extend its role in the enterprise apps space. Many of the most popular BlackBerry apps are made by RIM.
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