One of the value propositions I hesitated to mention yesterday in my “Why I Choose the BlackBerry PlayBook Over the Competition” was Documents to Go. I first wanted to confirm with RIM what exactly will be included in terms of Documents to Go on the PlayBook. I have to say the response I got back is awesome!
The BlackBerry PlayBook will ship with the full version of Documents to Go for FREE! This makes total sense and as far as I know will be the ONLY tablet that ships with a full suite of office compatible software. What does this mean to you? You will be able to both open AND edit Word documents, Excel and spreadsheet files, and PowerPoint files.
It gets even better. RIM confirmed to me that they will also include an Adobe PDF reader with the BlackBerry PlayBook from Adobe. I doubt you will be able to edit PDF files but you will be able to open them natively.
I guess we can chalk that up to another reason why I choose the BlackBerry PlayBook over the competition. It might not include native email without a BlackBerry Bridge but office compatibility is huge. Just to give you an idea you can pick up Documents to Go for the iPad it will run you $9.99 for Word and Excel and $16.99 if you also want PowerPoint. If you want to go with Apple’s iWorks suite to do the same thing it will cost you $9.99 EACH for Pages (Word), Numbers (Excel), and KeyNote (PowerPoint).
One of the main things I see myself using on the PlayBook other than full web browsing is document editing. It is almost impossible to view or edit an excel spreadsheet on a smartphone screen. On the PlayBook it looks awesome! I got a chance to play with early versions of the Documents to Go suite on the PlayBook at CES (pictures are from then) and then again this week with a much newer build and I have to say RIM has put in some seriously nice touches since then. I cannot wait for the final build!
What do you think?
Luis Merlos ( View Profile) - Posts: