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.
OK, after reading your post about Android, http://blog.laridian.com/?p=205I have a slightly better perspective of your company. I understand not wanting to put the time in, especially if there are only a few of you.
I know I’m ranting now, so forgive me, but I think that the thing that drives me crazy is the exclusivity. Exclusivity breeds contentment. Competition drives quality. When you told me that you had outsourced it, I assumed that you had hired someone else to do it. In other words, they had to report to you, and they were accountable to you, because essentially they were working for you. If you were keeping it all in house, then sure, keep it exclusive. However, if you’re gonna partner, open it up and let other developers take a whack at it. Maybe we’ll get something on WebOS before Jesus come’s back!
Ray,
I did read your post. I know sometimes we don’t type what we’re thinking. So if I didn’t understand what you intended, but didn’t write, then that’s fine — no harm done.
As I may have said to you before, let’s remember that we didn’t abandon Palm users, but rather Palm abandoned both their developers and their users — just as Microsoft has done with Windows Phone 7. Palm had a choice of whether or not to walk away from their users. We didn’t.
Now we have a choice of whether or not to invest our limited resources in a device that has 0% market share (WP 7), one that has 5% (webOS), one that has 15% (Android) or one that has 25% (iPhone). That pretty much sums it up.
Because of the nature of our agreement with Bits of God I can’t talk about anything I know about their progress. It’s up to them. Feel free to poke them and see what they’ll tell you.
Your argument re exclusivity is weak in this case. By working exclusively with one partner we motivate that partner to do something. If we weren’t committed to anyone, they wouldn’t be committed to us. Furthermore, there’s not enough market there to split the market between more than one partner.
Again, I believe we’ve made the right choice here. You certainly have other options. I can only do what I believe is right for our customers, shareholders and employees while at the same time not completely ignoring our customers who opted to go with webOS.
Good grief people!
Yes, we would all really love to have a Bible (of a translation most of us read) on our Pre. You need to take your rant to HP/Palm! You complain about it being 9 months and nothing done. Go yell at Palm! It’s been over 1.5 years and no new WebOS phone? If they want market share, they need more phones. If we want more apps, we need more market share. Oh, but in early 2011 a new one…. no, it’s another Pre with a faster processor. Great! I can use a homebrew app and fun my current Sprint Pre at 1ghz! The fact is, this is a business. WebOS has no valuable market share because Palm sucked it up. I do believe this will get better as the WebOS rolls out onto other devices (palm pad anyone?) but until then, be happy that these guys are even considering partnering with someone to put something out. OliveTree laughs at me when I ask them about a WebOS reader.
Or go complain to IBS/Biblica/Zondervan whatever they are called and tell them to lower the licensing fees. If they were more reasonable, I can guarantee more developers would be all over a Bible app.
Here is a link to Bits of god software update, I did no know that it was just two guys.
http://www.bitsofgodsoftware.com/?page_id=41