Hi Tim,

Thanks for your support for what we're trying to do here.

I'm always so glad to hear from our earliest Newton customers. Isn't it amazing that it has been more than a decade since we first started this adventure! We are grateful to all of you for helping us to grow and evolve with the changing mobile software terrain. You all gave us such a good start, and have always kept us going with your cheerfulness and thoughtful comments. So here goes...

The iPhone story for Life Balance....

We want everyone to understand that the iPhone story for Life Balance is more than just a native application, and goes beyond the anticipation of the SDK news from Apple, which is causing so much excitement out there.

You have some iPhone features already

First off, remember that we have already provided some iPhone support in the new Mac version of Life Balance 4. We worked very hard on the sync services support to iCal to make sure that there would be some useful interoperability for our iPhone users. Sync Services is a big step that may be "enough" for some of our customers who just want to maintain a view of events through iCal.

Apple is pushing web apps, and that could be good for mobile developers

As you probably know, Apple has been advocating that developers create web applications for deployment on the iPhone. We've been looking into that option, and it makes a good deal of sense in some ways. It gives us a way to deploy not only to the iPhone, but to any devices with good web browsers. It has its limitations too, like, UGH, not having access to your to do list if you are out of cell phone range. A web application may be the right thing for another set of our customers. Many of you will also notice that we have done a lot of work recently to move our web site to a new server with more capacity, and that we've implemented a new member driven structure. That is a completely different business model to figure out. A major advantage of the web application model is that it is independent of the limitations of an SDK, certification programs, or carrier restrictions.

Some people will still want a native application of Life Balance

For some of our customers, we think it is likely that they will want the full monty. They will still prefer a FULL native application of Life Balance running directly on the smartphone like they have now on the Palm OS. That is what the iPhone SDK is all about. Hurray for Apple for providing that... because without it, a native application is not possible without hacking the device and that gets you into big trouble with Apple and your customers. We don't think it is wise to do that.

However, we do not know yet what that officially sanctioned SDK will allow developers to do technically. We do not know what Apple will require as business terms. When the SDK is released, the development planning and work can begin. So, without that basic information, we have no idea what future pricing for a potential native application on the iPhone would be, or what kind of discounting we could offer to our existing customers.

It's a range of possibilities

Our feeling is that for our Life Balance customers, it is probably not an "either/or" situation. We are looking to provide a range of features, products, and services, because our customers have a range of needs from light use that we already have covered through the iCal sync to needing to use Life Balance hourly on the iPhone in the hinterlands away from cell phone coverage.

The SDK is the starting line, not the finish line

We know everyone is itching for a magic WOW event when the iPhone SDK is released, and we don't want people to be disappointed when "nothing" seems to happen within the first two hours of the Apple release. Getting our hands on that SDK is only the beginning of the next phase for our work on a possible native application. Some work to prepare for the release of the SDK has been taking place here... but you can only push so far ahead without delving into the actual SDK.

Anyway, I hope that is helpful to you. You may find it fun to read my latest blog posting about waiting for the iPhone SDK news too:

http://www.llamagraphics.com/drupal/blogs/cewhite/2008/02/19/some-though...

Best wishes,

--Catherine--*