This morning, Google announced that smartphone users could use its Google Docs site to edit documents on the go, says Rob Pegoraro of Faster Forward. Make that some users, on some smartphones, editing some documents. The addition of mobile editing capabilities to Google Docs’ word-processing component (its spreadsheet application gained that feature in February 2009) is subject to limitations that shut out much, if not most, of its potential audience. First, you need to run the right device. Google supports most iPhones and iPod touches, as well as the iPad. But if your phone runs Google’s own Android software you need the latest, 2.2 release. The Mountain View, Calif., firm’s latest numbers show only 36.2 percent of active Android devices have this version. Second, the document in question has to have been created with the new editor Google launched in April. Older files, even if you’ve worked on them since April, are ineligible for mobile editing. On top of this uncoordinated mix of functionality and the lack thereof — something I’m more accustomed to seeing in other companies’ web efforts — you need to have this feature turned on in your account…
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