Zondervan has announced the upcoming release of the NIV Study Bible for Windows Mobile and Palm. We are doing this product in partnership with Zondervan. It will include our Windows Mobile and Palm readers (PocketBible and MyBible) plus the option of a one-year subscription to iPocketBible.com for iPhone and iPod Touch users.

The NIV Study Bible has undergone a 25% revision to its over 20,000 in-text study notes. It also includes a comprehensive topical index. Zondervan will be selling a CD-ROM version of the product through Christian bookstores and other retail establishments. Laridian will sell it through its Web site. The release is slated to correspond to a reprint of the print edition of the NIV Study Bible coming out this fall.

We are pleased to be able to work with publishers during this phase of a new release. The timing allows both the print and electronic products to benefit from the promotion of the other and reduces questions about the availability of each. Forward-thinking publishers are beginning to do this more and more — thinking about electronic rights at the same time they’re releasing major new reference works in print. Zondervan is among that group.

We don’t have further details such as pricing at this time. We just wanted to let you know about it as soon as we could. You should see this product in September from us, and in Christian bookstores for the Christmas season.

As you may have heard, Tyndale recently announced their plans to publish the NLT Study Bible based on the New Living Translation (second edition). The study Bible will have almost 26,000 notes on various verses. It will include maps, charts, illustrations and a built in word-study system. It also has introduction notes on ten major sections of the Bible, personality profiles and more in-depth articles on places and topics.

Laridian is happy to announce that we have been chosen by Tyndale to be one of the first Bible software companies releasing the electronic version of the study Bible simultaneously with the release of the print edition (slated for the fall of 2008). The collection will include the NLT(se), NLT Study Bible Notes and cross references, two volumes of the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary Series (Matthew/Mark & Romans/Galatians), the Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary, the Tyndale Bible Dictionary, the One Year Bible and One Year Bible Companion, One Year with Jesus and One Year Walk with God devotionals. Tyndale will be placing this bundle in Christian retail outlets. Laridian will be adding all these titles (and some others) to our existing product line.

These titles will be available for PocketBible for Windows, PocketBible 4 for Windows Mobile, iPocketBible for iPhone and iPod Touch, MyBible for Palm and the NLT(se) for the Noah reader for Blackberry (already available).

Bookstore representatives attending the ICRS convention in Orlando this past week were treated to a pre-release copy of the NLT Study Bible collection.

Laridian and Tyndale have enjoyed a close relationship over the past ten years of Laridian’s existence and we at Laridian are extremely excited to be working so closely with Tyndale on this project.

Stay tuned for this release in the Fall. Also, stay tuned for some other exciting news about additional titles being released over the next month or so. We’ve been working hard and it’s been hard to keep it all quiet. You’re going to really like what we’ve been working on!

For those of you who have written expressing some confusion about a product called “pocket-bible” for the iPhone 2, no, that isn’t our product.

Yes, we do have a registered trademark on the term “PocketBible”. Our version of PocketBible for iPhone and iPod Touch is called iPocketBible but the trademark covers any software that is used to display the Bible text, regardless of platform.

We’ve had to deal with a number of trademark infringements over the years and so far they’ve all been handled very reasonably. We hope this one will be no exception.