Glad to see all the comments on our new Smartphone product. Let me see if I can clear up some of the issues.
First, all the Bible and reference book licenses we get from the copyright owners are "per device" not "per user". This is true of all licenses granted to all software developers by all content owners. I've never seen an exception to that.
If you have PocketBible running on your Pocket PC with the NIV and NASB, you couldn't legally copy the NIV or NASB onto your Smartphone and view it with PocketBible for WM Smartphone even if they were the same format. You have to have purchase one copy for each device you use it on. So if any of you complaining about the incompatibility between the formats are using PocketBible on both of your devices, then the cost would be no different even if the formats were compatible.
If you are no longer using your Pocket PC (or Palm for that matter) and thought you could just transfer the files, you at least have a case from a copyright perspective. In this case, though, the file formats are different.
The reason the file formats are different is complex, but here's the main one: The Smartphone doesn't have the same functionality to dispaly HTML text as the Pocket PC does. As a result we use our own HTML engine to render and display our text. The new format contains a compressed version of HTML that loads quicker than the old format. We can get away with this because we control the HTML rendering whereas before we did not. So we sacrifice some file size for a performance increase.
I was all set to use this over OliveTree, but now I think I'll have to re-evaluate my purchase decision -- OliveTree may be cheaper after all.
That may be true but make sure you evaluate the features of the two products. I think you'll be happy with PocketBible. And you're going to have to buy the Bibles from OliveTree anyway. You'll get a discount if you purchase from us as a returning customer.
And see this quote from another poster: "their software is much more polished and easier to use than OliveTree".
it would be nice if they mentioned that you couldn't use the PPC bibles before they took your money
This is a touchy issue. I'm sure you would have been LESS confused if we made a statement like that, but many of our customers (none of you here, I'm sure) get VERY confused if we add a lot of extra information. We have to be very careful how much we say.
You wouldn't believe some of the tech support issues already ("I just bought PocketBible for my Dell Axim and now there's an upgrade already...", "I can't get this to work on my Treo...", "The program's not working right on my AudioVox 6600 Pocket PC..."). We've found that we can't give people enough information to eliminate all confusion. We opt for giving them the essentials.
We didn't anticipate that many people would think their PPC Bibles would work with the Smartphone version, and so far there have been very few who did. The fact that the new Bibles require the Smartphone version of PocketBible is at least in the system requirements for those products at our site.
This is kind of like saying you need to buy one bible for reading in your bedroom, and one for reading in your den...in this case the digital version is at a disadvantage.
Remember we're driven by royalty and licensing considerations. If you have a complaint it's with the copyright owners not with us. Also, I don't think your analogy holds up. Your device is like a binding, not like a room. You can view your printed Bible in any room in your house. But you can't buy a leather-bound Bible from a Christian bookstore then expect them to give you a paperback and two hard-cover Bibles because you already own the leather-bound copy.
I hope this helps. We're always willing to talk about these issues. I remind you that in many cases we're only doing what we're licensed to do. I'll happily answer your questions here or by private email to
[email protected].
Craig Rairdin
President
Laridian, Inc.