# Is Bible Works doomed?



## jogri17 (Nov 11, 2012)

I am opening up a thread for discussion. It seems clear to me that the global market is more and more on mobile devices. Most people access facebook through various apps and fewer and fewer actually go to the trouble to type in the address bar. iOS and Android are huge. And when you look at Windows 8 and Mountain lion there is a clear integration to make it more mobile "feeling". On Windows RT, you cannot install older windows software applications, and while Windows 8 allows you to keep much of the older software, it is seems pretty evident (in my mind at least) that Microsoft want to people people more and more towards the Metro Interface (i.e. pretty tiles). 

Clearly this massive change will not happen over night. However it seems that Bible works is in for a huge problem. Now, they will off set a bit of this because they finally ported it into a mac version (that clearly looks like a port). Good for them. But the problem remains that most software now a days is multi-platform. Office is coming for Android and iOS early next year. iTunes does work on windows (and is easily imported with WINE into Linux). Google docs works in any browser. And on and on. But Bible works has always remained inexpensive because they tried to work on minimizing interface updates, getting good book licenses, and focusing on Bible study in a narrow sense of studying its text. While I am grateful for this, it remains a very old piece of software. Old doesn't mean bad, but now that more and more touch screen is becoming a standard... Touch with Bible Works is horribly awkward. I tried the other day Bible Works on a windows 8 tablet (not RT) and it was a horrible experience and the layout makes it near impossible to use with any profit. The UI wasn't the only problem, but also reading it was cluttered and hard because you can't change the background or font. 

I'm no expert in programming (though I'm starting to flirt with python a bit), but given the days of the desktop are numbered and its death sentence could be 9 (corny joke), eventually microsoft will be forced to stop supporting older versions (XP stops this year, and vista and 7 will probably be around for a while but 6-7 years seems like a max) and the desktop in windows (at least have we also knew it, so what is Bible Work's long term strategy? They only recently created a very basic port for Mac Desktop, but the trend seems to be going mobile, so what do you think? They seem to be very resistant to the move towards touch, mobile, etc. over there, but this could apply to a lot of companies and programs also. Thoughts? 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Joseph G. 
Québec, QC


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## Semper Fidelis (Nov 11, 2012)

Though mobile is certainly gaining traction, the desktop will not become obsolete. Perhaps the majority of users may migrate to it but there are apps that will just never be as efficient on a tablet interface.


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## SolaScriptura (Nov 11, 2012)

I doubt that Bibleworks is doomed. It fills a niche.

I've spent a LOT of money and a lot of time on Logos, but I can say that for some things I still prefer Bibleworks. I doubt I'm alone.


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## jogri17 (Nov 11, 2012)

Semper Fidelis said:


> Though mobile is certainly gaining traction, the desktop will not become obsolete. Perhaps the majority of users may migrate to it but there are apps that will just never be as efficient on a tablet interface.



My reference to desktop isn't to the type of computer, but rather to the user interface in windows (that place that used to have a start menu). 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Joseph G. 
Québec, QC


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## emellott (Nov 15, 2012)

*Response to Post*

I am submitting this through a friend (Edward Mellott) who has posting privileges.

To begin with I do not understand the purpose of the post. It seems to be more aimed at doing harm to the company than raising legitimate questions. But in any case I disagree with almost every statement in the post. Briefly:

1. The global market may be heavy on mobile devices right now but serious work will never be done on a mobile device. Real work requires screen real estate, computing power and a pointing device more accurate than a finger. The iPad is a toy. I have one. I know. Look at the 20 most popular and the twenty top grossing apps. They are all games. It is good for games and e-mail - as long as the messages are short and uncomplicated. Desktops are not going away and Intel Win applications are not going away. The vast majority of serious users will do serious work on a desktop computer. Microsoft has never said that they want all apps to migrate to Metro. At the present time Metro is a windowless application with severe limitations on the applications. Metro is aimed at the mobile market and compute intensive and work intensive applications do not work at all well on mobile devices. BibleWorks is a serious tool, not a toy. For that reason we have decided to commit only limited resources to mobile devices.

2. The statement that an application is obsolete just because it does not attempt to cover all the platform bases is nonsensical. Win32 is still by far the most used operating system in the world. Win RT will not make it obsolete and it was not intended to. That is why Microsoft is coming out with a Win32 Windows pad. It will in my opinion outsell the RT based pad and eventually kill it. The RT pad, like the iPad it is aimed at, is not suitable for serious work. That is not debatable. It is a fact.

3. The touch screen is here to stay but it will NOT become the standard for real work. A mouse is a 100 times more efficient and more accurate. Touch is intended for and will always be aimed mostly at mobile devices. As for the statement that touch with BibleWorks is horribly awkward, I disagree emphatically. And we have only just begun interacting with Windows 8 in touch mode. Windows 8 hasn't even been out a month yet. This statement is premature at best. It also fails to deal with the nature of the software. BibleWorks is a complex program and complex programs require screen real estate, something a porta-paddy will never have (by design).

4. I have no idea what it means to say the days of the desktop are numbered. Whether that is a reference to the hardware or the software, it is very definitely not true. It is alive and well in Windows 8. My Windows 8 desktop looks just like my Windows 7 desktop (complete with Start button). It works as well without touch as Windows 7 ever did. The same will be true of Windows 9 and 10. People who do serious artistic, scientific, development and business work will never migrate in a big way to a touch screen, or single window tile apps. It ain't gonna happen. The amount of physical labor alone kills the idea. I can move a mouse cursor across the screen with the flick of a wrist and position it within a pixel in a second. Doing this with a touch screen, if possible at all, takes 10 times longer and 100 times the energy. In spite of all the hype, mice are not going away. Never mind having to clean your screen 10 times a day. That is just the tip of the iceberg.

5. We have not minimized interface updates. We have something that has been developed over 20 years and it works very well. We see no reason to change the interface just to change the interface. It is a waste of our time and is also extremely irritating to users who then have to relearn how to use the program every time some nerdy programmer gets a creative urge. We do what we do in the interests of our users.

6. We may or may not invest time in versions of BibleWorks on other platforms. We have decided that it is way too early to make that decision. The market is chaotic right now and will be for some time. For now we would rather focus on doing what we do well and keeping prices down and not brainwashing our users into investing huge sums of money in electronic libraries with limited lifespans. Our lack of desire to compete in every corner of the market does not make us old or obsolete. It makes us frugal stewards of the Lord’s resources. Our desire is to serve, not to dominate or control turf. Hopefully we will always have users who appreciate what we are trying to do. As long as that is the case we will be here.

Mike Bushell

BibleWorks, LLC


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## SolaScriptura (Nov 15, 2012)

Edward,

Please tell Mike that as long as his company continues making a quality product, I'll keep buying.
Unless the economy totally tanks and we end up in some sort of "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" type of world, in which case never mind.


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