The wide range of operating systems already supported by Olive Tree is a perfect indication of how fluid the mobile market is today. The handheld mobile landscape is one that continues to expand, changing as it grows to meet the new demands of today's consumer market. Companies like Olive Tree Bible Software, that are developing products for this constantly shifting market, have an exciting challenge to meet – how to keep producing new products that will collaborate with the fluid mobile landscape in order to keep consumers satisfied.
Though Olive Tree may not be able to predict where the next shift in the landscape will be, and what the next mobile platform is, the company is well-equipped to provide Bible software for it. Cross-platform development tools are what has enabled Olive Tree to continue expanding their product set to meet the demands of the ever changing mobile market; from the year 2000 when there were only two predominant platforms in the mobile arena (Palm OS and Pocket PC), to the 12 different platforms supported by Olive Tree today. (These 12 platforms include: Palm OS, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile Smartphone, Symbian Series 60 versions 1, 2, and 3, Symbian Series 80 version 2, Symbian UIQ versions 2 and 3, BlackBerry, iPod, and Java cell phones.)
Stephen Johnson, senior software engineer for Olive Tree Bible Software, speaks about three main aspects of the technology behind cross-platform development for Olive Tree's BibleReader application:
"First, Olive Tree has a common set of database files that run on ten of the twelve platforms the company supports. This makes the task of creating databases much easier since only one database has to be created. Second, Olive Tree uses a cross-platform text rendering engine. The most complex part of developing the BibleReader is in figuring out how to display the text on the screen (text rendering). This part of the application is written in such a way that it can run on almost any platform, which saves a lot of development time. Third, Olive Tree has a cross-platform database layer. This means that there is only one set of code for reading and searching the databases. Having code that can run on multiple platforms makes the task of developing for new platforms much easier."
Not only is this type of technology important for engineers, but it is crucial for software users as well. With the rate of change and improvement in the mobile device arena, consumers are constantly changing devices. If technology companies are not set up with some type of cross-platform development, then software purchased for one device may not work on next year's device. In a company like Olive Tree users are able to keep updating their software with their devices, staying current with the device market while bringing their software along with them – the best of both worlds!
About Olive Tree Bible Software
Olive Tree Bible Software provides Bible versions and study tools for Palm OS, Pocket PC, Smartphone and Symbian cell phones, and BlackBerry devices. Web and online Bible search engines are also available. The BibleReader™
