We’re announcing today that we’ve signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Bits of God Software to be the exclusive provider of Bibles and other reference materials for an upcoming version of the popular Simple Bible application for the Palm Pre. Once completed, this will give current Laridian customers who have chosen the Palm Pre as their mobile platform access to the Bibles and reference books they already own for other platforms. It will also give new Simple Bible users immediate access to one of the largest collections of Bible-related content for mobile devices. The new program from Bits of God Software, currently referred to as Simple Bible Pro, will allow users to download new Bibles and reference content directly into the program from their account on Laridian’s site.

As we’ve said here before, programming for the Pre is a whole new challenge. Our existing code that runs on Windows Mobile, iPhone, Windows desktop, and Palm OS really gives us no leverage on the Pre. With that in mind we sought a partner, and when it comes to Bible software on the Pre, the guys at Bits of God are the best. We’re pretty excited about partnering with them.

Our current agreement is “an agreement to agree” so there are many details to be worked out yet. We’ve agreed in principle on most of the more difficult points of our relationship, so we don’t anticipate any problems. The important thing is that it looks like current PocketBible and MyBible customers will have a migration path if they choose the Pre, and that Simple Bible Pro will get a jump start over other Bible software on the device by having access to Laridian’s growing library of content.

MotionApps and Palm have both released updates for the Pre to address compatibility issues. Further details can be found here: Classic v1.1 release is now complete.

Laridian’s MyBible 5, DailyReader, Memorize! and CountEm are all Classic Certified.

Here on the eve of the launch of the Palm Pre, we are pleased to announce that all four of our Palm OS programs have been Classic Certified by MotionApps. MyBible 5, DailyReader, Memorize! and CountEm are all Classic Certified. The Classic Certified Logo serves as a seal of approval letting you know that you can use the Classic Certified application with confidence.

While we have worked with MotionApps to obtain Classic Certification, we have not yet seen a Pre or experienced our products running in Classic. While we expect most of our product features to “just work”, there may be some differences or issues.
For instance, since the Pre does not use the familiar Palm HotSync, installation to the Pre for use within Classic is different. Likewise, data synchronization with PocketBible for Windows may not be supported or may require some extra effort on your part.

Since these products are designed for the Palm Operating System, some issues related to using our products under Classic may not be addressed.

In order to support installation to the Pre, we are now  providing our Palm OS products in “.zip” format, in addition to the Windows Setup program and “.sit” formats that we have previously supplied. The .zip format allows anyone easy access to the Palm “.prc” and “.pdb” files that are installed to a device. (In fact, Windows power users may prefer the zip file and manual install when installing to an older Palm OS device as well.)

MyBible, DailyReader, Memorize! and CountEm were all updated earlier this afternoon to include the Classic certification. If you’ve previously downloaded our programs, you may want to download the updated versions made available earlier this afternoon.

Over the next few days, we’ll be updating our Web site with additional information on using and installing our programs with the Pre. Watch www.laridian.com/palm for details. And who knows, we may write another blog article or two.

Registered owners of MyBible 5, DailyReader, Memorize! and CountEm may download the updated, Classic Certified versions without cost. If you enjoy these programs in Classic, please consider buying additional Laridian content to use on your Pre.

Laridian VIP Ed Hansberry posts the following on InformationWeek.com: Too Many Mobile OS’s Limiting Development For Companies.

Ed writes, “…there are a bewildering number of platforms and variations within the platforms to develop for. Enterprises will take the easy way out and just stick to one platform and a precious few models. Software developers that are selling their apps will have to have enough penetration for each platform to make development worthwhile. Each platform requires its own development team or at least a dedicated development process that takes time away from other supported platforms…. While phone carriers may support six or more mobile platforms, I am not sure the software industry will.”

We’ve been talking about this problem for some time:

• Palm Pre
• On the Problems of Designing User-Friendly Software for PDAs and Smart Phones
• The Hidden Complexity of the Cell Phone Market
• When is a Smartphone Not a Smartphone?
• …and any number of posts when the iPhone first came out.

Ed makes a good observation: There are at least six major mobile platforms. What if there were six desktop platforms? The software industry would be a significantly different place as companies tried to solve the huge problem of cross-platform development, multiple-platform development, and having enough market on any one platform to justify the incremental cost of maintaining or entering the market on that platform.

One thing you can say about Windows: By dominating the market Microsoft makes it easy for developers on desktop platforms. You can focus your development on one operating system. If you make it there you can consider Mac if you have enough users to justify the expense. Once you’ve covered Windows you have 80%-90% of the market. Whether you go for the 10%-15% represented by the Mac OS is a big decision, but at least it’s the only decision you’ll have to make.

For those of us writing software for mobile platforms there’s not only the issue of supporting a large number of platforms, but there’s the fact that the relative mix of market share on these platforms changes over time. Palm OS used to be our largest platform. Today the Palm OS is dead. Palm and Windows Mobile used to dominate the market; today iPhone and Windows Mobile hold the dominant share of customers. Deciding how we allocate development time and money is an ongoing process that changes a couple times every year.

Meanwhile Apple doesn’t make it easy to develop for the iPhone. I am having a major problem with getting the XCode programming tools to talk to my new 3G iPhone. The information at the Apple developer site is insufficient, and the developer forums they provide have numerous questions identical to mine that have gone unanswered for months. When you call “developer support” at Apple you get a guy in Great Britain who admits he has absolutely no idea how to solve the problem because he’s not a programmer and knows nothing about programming. He points me to the documentation, which is what I’ve been following to get me into the predicament I’m in.

It’s actually encouraging to see a major company like Yahoo make the decision to abandon all other platforms but the iPhone. (Actually, they’re supporting other platforms through customizations to their Web-based products.) It makes it easier for us to consider similar options.

Several months have passed since the original Palm Pre announcement, and our original article on the Palm Pre. Please keep in mind that we don’t have any special “inside information” about the Pre, and that we have not announced any plans regarding software that we may or may not offer for the Pre.

As you probably know, the Palm Pre uses a new operating system called Web OS. Palm has announced that existing Palm OS programs, such as MyBible, are not compatible with Web OS. There have been differing reports on whether a Palm OS emulator, allowing programs such as MyBible to work on the Pre, would be included.

However, MotionApps is developing a product called Classic that will allow some “classic” Palm OS applications to work on the new Palm Pre.

MotionApps has announced that they are performing compatibility testing with some popular products. You can let them know of your own favorite products and perhaps influence which products will be tested for compatibility. To express your interest in using MyBible on a Pre via Classic to MotionApps, click here and fill out the resulting form. (Any information you provide is sent to MotionApps, not Laridian.)

Palm, maker of the popular Treo and Centro phones and the venerable Palm OS organizers (also known as connected organizers and the original Palm Pilot), has announced a new phone, called the Pre. You can read about it here: www.palm.com

If you’re into technical details, you can find some here: http://developer.palm.com

While there are some nice Web pages and pre-ads (pun intended) for the Pre, there is surprisingly little information about adding programs to the Pre.

However, based on what we’ve read, this is what we “know” right now:

1. The Pre uses a new operating system
2. Palm will be making additional information available to developers “over the coming weeks and months”
3. Although it’s not been expressly stated, it appears that existing Palm OS programs will not run on the Pre
4. It will be possible to add 3rd party programs to the Pre
5. These new Pre programs are completely new, and not based upon existing Palm OS programs
6. These new Pre programs are more similar to Web pages than to traditional programs written in languages such as C and C++

So, if you’re a MyBible user or are hoping to be a Pre early adopter, what does this all mean? It means:

1. You should not expect MyBible to work on a Pre
2. You should not expect any existing Palm OS applications to work on a Pre
3. There will be confusion about which programs work on older Palm devices and which work on the Pre
4. No one can start working on programs designed for the Pre until Palm releases more information “over the coming weeks and months”

What do we think about the new Pre? On the one hand, it looks like another cool new phone. On the other hand, it looks like just another cool new phone. As a cool new phone, unrelated to the current Palm models except by name, it will require an investment to create a cool new program that will work on it.

As Palm releases more information about the Pre, we’ll have the information we need to evaluate if and when there might be a version of PocketBible for the Pre.