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.
Is there a date for the release of the bible software for the Palm Pre Plus?
I assume there will be an e-mail about it when it is released.
I tried to post the following, but WordPress complains that I’ve said it before. So I’ll say it again: Our agreement with Bits of God Software prohibits us from disclosing anything we might know about their development schedule.
Thanks Craig. I am curious about switching to the pre and I was wondering how long I would have to wait.
Thanks
I have been using your products on my Palm phones since MyBible 3.0. I absolutely love it! i now have a Palm Pre and I’ve downloaded the free Bibles available. They are OK. (They need a little boot camp to be all that they can be.) I miss my NIV w/Study Bible, so I’m waiting with great anticipation for that version, and Simple Bible Pro in general.
What slays me, burns my hindside, etc., is that Palm didn’t bring you all on board sooner. It also burns me that Laridian didn’t fight to be a part. Yes, Bible software isn’t as big as the next version of Texas Hold ‘Em or Bejeweled, but there are enough Christians who like the convenience of having a Bible handy at all times to put up a stink. And if Palm wants their newest OS to succeed, they’ve got to know who is buying their products and why.
Can use my version of the NIV that came with my bible on the free version of Simple Bible?
Keep us posted as much as possible.
just an observation. It seems like Laridian has spent a tremendous amount of time developing te iPhone version of MyBible – and basically no time developing for the Palm Pre. I know that can’t be true – but based on te blogs and forums – there’s little activity. I know you don’t control the phones we decide to buy, but I’m just communicating as a loyal customer who believes no other bible software for smartphones even comes close, that i’m a little concerned we’ve just been dropped. Simple Bible doesn’t seem to have the staff to move quickly enough. The latest big update was to add 3 bookmarks instead of 1. Is this really the best app that Laridian could find to bridge their loyal palm users? Just wwish there was a reason to hope Laridian was delivering an answer soon.
Love Laridian – just wish I could use it!
Tom,
I’m obligated by a non-disclosure agreement not to talk about certain aspects of our work with Bits of God Software. I think I can say the following, however: I have regularly scheduled conference calls with the developers of Simple Bible Pro. They are making progress that you’re not aware of because they haven’t made it public.
The Simple Bible Pro program is based on Simple Bible, but it’s a separate project. The fact that you don’t see lots of new features in Simple Bible is actually good news. It means that they’re spending their time on Simple Bible Pro.
I know for a fact that progress is being made based on our most recent conversations. I’m just obligated not to discuss it.
We were able to develop our iPhone app in-house because it supports the C++ programming language (same language used for MyBible for Palm OS and PocketBible for Windows Mobile). That meant all of our existing code could be used and wouldn’t have to be rewritten. The Pre uses languages that would require us to start from scratch and learn a whole new system. This is one reason why partnering made a lot of sense.
Keep in mind, too, that the number of iPhone users is at least 4 times the number of Pre users. And when you look at network activity like the folks at AdMob do, iPhone is 18-20 times the volume as Pre. While the Pre is a great device and webOS is a cool operating system, its market share is really tiny. I think we made a good decision to partner with an existing developer instead of trying to do something ourselves. And when we looked at the Bible programs available at the time, it was clear that Simple Bible was the product to be associated with. We’re really happy about our relationship with them. You should be, too.
Lemar,
You can’t use any of your Laridian Bibles with the free Simple Bible program. You need to wait for Simple Bible Pro. That’s one of the things we’ve been working on with them — making it possible for their program to log into your account, determine what you own, then download it to the Pre. In fact we just did some debugging on that on Monday, where I watched what was going on on the server while they downloaded a Bible from a user account. By working together we were better able to see what was going on and hopefully iron out the problem.
Thanks for the updates Craig and the hard work of you and the developers.
I’m soooo happy to hear that this has not been forgotten. I can’t wait. I love my PRE & would love to read, on my PRE, the NIV that I’ve already purchased. Thanks.
Ich versuche verzweifelt Simple Bible auf meinem palm zu nutzen, es klappt leider nicht. Wer kann mir weiter helfen?
Kontaktieren sie unsere freunde auf Bits of God Software: http://www.bitsofgodsoftware.com
I, too, love my Pre. It took me a few weeks to decide whether to invest in Classic or wait (im)patiently to see what developed with Simple Bible Pro. Happily, I decided to try to Classic and am very happy that I did. Everything transferred over perfectly. I was even warned that my bookmarks wouldn’t come over, but there they are, safe and sound.
I have only one request: I use the NIV Study Bible and love reading all the study helps. However, when there are multiple asterisks side by side (like in many of the Psalms), it’s very difficult to hone in on the right one. It wasn’t a problem when using the Treo stylus or my fingernail, which could literally pinpoint the exact asterisk, but much harder to do now with a fingertip. I have fairly slender fingers and still have problems. If you could mention this to the developers, I’d appreciate it.
And just a quick word about tech support — your people are the greatest! They always respond quickly with detailed and personalized instructions. Thanks for running the company as a reflection of true Christian principles.
so does the recent HP acquisition and the fact that AT&T has now picked up the PRE change your plans for an app for the Pre?
You mean do we plan to NOT have a Pre app now that HP bought Palm? No, we still plan to continue our relationship with Bits of God.
please don’t let us wait for 18 months
If I read the details of Palm’s new PDK, it seems to allow the porting of existing C++ code. Does that impact your decision to not code a webOS app in-house?
Not as much as Palm’s waning market share and HP’s lackluster support for the future of webOS.
We continue to support the efforts of Bits of God Software and understand they’re making progress.
I’m still disappointed that you guys have decided not to develop a native WebOS application yourself. I understand your hesitation in investing your time into developing for WebOS, but by not doing so I believe that you have lost the chance to gain a significant market share in an emerging market.
I mean no offense to Bits of God Software, they have admirable good intentions, but so far they have not developed a quality product. They certainly have not engaged their customers and potentially paying customers effectively. This makes me uncomfortable buying a future product from them. I hope that in your agreement with them you gave them a stipulation for termination of the agreement if they did not provide a suitable product within a certain timeframe. It has been 9 months since this agreement was announced, and we still don’t even see a little belly bump, let alone a baby!
You’re confusing what you can see with what is really happening. You may not have seen Simple Bible Pro, but it exists and is coming along nicely. Furthermore, you assume that if we had not partnered with BoG (or if we terminated our agreement today) that you would see a webOS app from us sooner. Ask the Android fans if that’s the case.
We continue to believe that this was the right choice for us for webOS. It’s not a platform we would be spending ANY development time on right now, so even if BoG is giving it 5 minutes a day, it’s 5 minutes more than we would’ve given it here.
Craig, I don’t want to bash you, but I don’t think you actually read my post, because your response didn’t sound like it was to me. It sounded like you were just answering all of the other people who have commented on this issue.
I am not confusing what I am seeing with what is really happening. I clearly communicated that the problem is the fact that we aren’t seeing anything! When I said “so far they have not developed a quality product,” I am referring to the only product that they have developed that is currently available, which is the Simple Bible app. It’s just not that great. However, regardless of what they are working on back in the wood shed, the bottom line is that for the consumer, if we don’t see it, it doesn’t exist! For example, the iPhone 5 and the Sony PlayStation 4 do not exist. Certainly both of those devices are being developed, but they don’t exist right now. As I explained before, the lack of an existing quality product combined with their lack of communication makes me unlikely to buy a product from them in the future. They need to ramp up their communication with their customers if they want to be successful. You, of all people, already know that.
I am also not assuming that I would see a WebOS app from you any sooner if you had not partnered with them. It is the very fact that you have chosen not to develop for WebOS yourself that I am disappointed in. As I stated in my tweet long ago, I am saddened by the developers that built their companies on the back of Palm and their users, and now have basically abandoned them like SplashData, DataViz, Laridian, etc.