User:EJSawyer/Laridian Electronic Publishing

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Laridian Electronic Publishing is a software company founded in 1998, specializing in Bible reading and study applications for Windows Mobile and other mobile computing platforms.

History
During the 1980's, Craig Rairdin wrote QuickVerse, a Bible-reading application for DOS. Parsons Technology, one of the first software vendors to focus on the vertical market of church software, bought the program from Rairdin in 1988, then hired him to continue its development. During the 1990's, QuickVerse was one of the most successful Bible reading applications on the market, and easily the most well-known product made by Parsons.

In 1997, Parsons was bought by Brøderbund. Rairdin, still a senior employee, had become intrigued by the fledgling mobile computing market, particularly smart devices such as PDAs. In April 1998, in his spare time, he began writing a Bible reading application for Windows CE. He demonstrated his application to Parsons management, but they were focused on desktop development, and were not interested in pursuing the mobile segment. However, Rairdin discovered that the Brøderbund acquisition had inadvertently severed his non-compete and intellectual property agreements with Parsons, leaving him free to develop the program on his own into a commercially viable product.

On October 21, 1998, Rairdin formally incorporated his new software company, named Laridian (derived from a Greek word meaning "small book" ), and the first product, PalmBible, was introduced at the same time. Following his first sale on November 28, Rairdin resigned from Parsons on December 11. Two fellow Parsons employees, Jeff Wheeler and Jim VanDuzer, who saw the potential in products like PalmBible, resigned from Parsons in January 1999 and joined Laridian; as of April 2009, both are still executives with the company.

After Palm, Inc. were granted a trademark on the word "Palm", many vendors were forced to change their product name to avoid infringement. Microsoft changed the name of its PDA platform from "Palm PC" to "Palm-size PC", then to "PocketPC". Likewise, to avoid similar infringement (and to indicate alignment with the Microsoft platform), PalmBible was renamed "PocketBible".

PocketBible
PocketBible (formerly PalmBible) continues to be Laridian's flagship product. Current versions run on Windows Mobile devices, but Laridian has also developed a version for Windows PCs, which has the ability to sync bookmarks and notes with a Windows Mobile copy (and is, in its own way, a "mobile" application, in that it can be configured to run as a portable application from a USB flash drive)

It is worth noting that in its most basic configuration, the PocketBible application does not include any content. Laridian stocks an ever-growing ecosystem of books (e.g. Bible translations, devotionals, and reference materials such as Bible commentaries, Bible dictionaries, concordances, etc) for the program, many of which are free or extremely inexpensive. For new users, Laridian also sells the PocketBible software as part of several "library" sets, bundled with popular Bibles and books.

MyBible
MyBible is a Bible study eBook application for PalmOS devices. Originally called "Scripture", it was developed by David Fedor at Servant Software. Servant retains ownership and residual rights to the application, but through an exclusive license, Laridian has assumed all development, support, and sales.

Like PocketBible, MyBible is a standalone eBook application, albeit optimized for Bible-study purposes. Bibles, references, and other materials are separate add-ons, although many are available for free or low-cost.

BookBuilder
Laridian also sells BookBuilder, an eBook content authoring tool (originally developed for Laridian internal use), allowing third-party publication of content for PocketBible and MyBible.

DailyReader
DailyReader is a mobile application that provides a "daily reading" format for eBooks. This lends itself particularly well to "devotional" books, intended for daily Bible study and meditation. DailyReader for PalmOS is integrated with MyBible, so that scripture references in a DailyReader book will hyperlink to the relevant passage in MyBible (if both are installed). DailyReader was previously available for PocketPC/Windows Mobile platforms (with similar integration to PocketBible), but is no longer available, because the same functionality is built into PocketBible version 3.0 and later.

Laridian stocks a large collection of devotionals for DailyReader. These vary from simple Bible reading plans (e.g. Bible in a year) to life-application commentaries such as My Utmost for His Highest.

Memorize!
Memorize! is a mobile application for Windows Mobile and PalmOS that assists with memorization of short sections of text. This is particularly useful for memorization of Bible verses. On each platform, Memorize integrates with its corresponding Bible reader (PocketBible or MyBible), if installed, allowing verse text to be imported from an available translation simply by entering the relevant scripture reference.

Other
Laridian has developed several other products, as well as reselling products from other developers, all within the niche of mobile software for Christians &mdash; almost all of the product line is for Bible reading and study &mdash; including software for iPod/iPod Touch/iPhone and Blackberry platforms.