A Case for an Improved Windows Store App

More and more people are going to be using Windows Store Apps on their PC's.  Even if I have Logos 5 installed on my desktop I may want to jump into the Store app for quick reference or maybe a touch screen experience.

In other words this is not just about an RT app.  Make a better store app and people will use it on x86 and ARM.  It isn't like making a store app is just for Surface or other Windows RT devices.  Everyone can use it.

I think Logos is making a mistake by not developing their windows App. They say they will not do so unless the Surface reaches 10% of market saturation. This reasoning misses two important points.  FIRST The size of the tablet market has exploded to the point that even a 5% saturation is a tremendous number of units. They should be thinking in terms of a target number of units instead of percentage of market.  SECOND the windows app includes more than just the  the Surfac as Brian has Pointed out. Also Brian's point about the use of Kindle is important. If I am purchasing a book that is available on Kindle. I always purchase it there instead of Logos for the same reasons Brian has mentioned. I would much prefer to purchase them through logos so that they would be part of the highlighting, note making, and indexing advantages of Logos if the app were usable.

I gave my iPad 3 to my wife and purchased a Surface 2 on a trial basis. After 2 days I was ready to take it back. But now I prefer it. When we traveled to Phoenix I didn't have to take a tablet and a laptop because the Surface with a keyboard works so well with Office. I was able to begin a new sermon series on the plane. I could have never done this with my iPad. Plus on the plane it fit and worked much better on the tray than the ipad or laptop.  Laridian has developed their windows appPocketPC  to the point that I use it on my Surface 2 to teach my classes. It will be my preferred Bible program (when using the limited library available) until Logos decides to develop their app. Logos. Hope you are reading these posts. I love you program. IT IS THE BEST.  Please reconsider.

• Windows Store is terrible because there aren't any good apps.
• There aren't any good apps because Windows Store is terrible.
• Logos won't improve the Windows App unless enough people use it.
• I have no interest in using unless Logos improves it.

I feel like Yossarian.

I would also love a functional windows 8 app! I just purchased a Surface Pro 2. While running full L5 is incredible, I have to use my ipad for reading because the win8 app is terrible, and the L5 desktop app is clunky for reading. Just a few features needed for now! Offline reading and table of contents would be a great start!

I purchased a Samsung Ultrabook one week ago, and am now running Win 8.1.  I downloaded Logos  5 and my library when I got the laptop. Tonight I found the Logos app in the Windows Store and downloaded it. It sounds as if everyone is having trouble with the store app.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only way  I can use my library with the store app is to download the complete library again, correct?

Microsoft has shown that Windows RT/ARM devices aren't going away anytime soon. There's growing support for the Surface 2 as well as the Nokia Lumia 2520. Metro is here to stay, and the market is growing pretty well.

Please reconsider putting more functionality and development into this app!

At this point I'm looking for another Bible software package for my wife and kids -- because they use Windows 8.1 tablets with touch screen, full Logos isn't really useful in tablet mode, and the logos app is so minimal as to be pretty much useless. I hate to switch them to something other than Logos, but... There is a huge touch screen market out there for Windows apps, so Logos needs to address this.

Russ

My argument: Improve the Windows Store Logos app not because of Windows RT device market share, but because then you tap into all those Windows 8.1 customers who are getting tablets and touchscreen laptops and other devices that can run your app.  Sure, they can install Logos 5 (and then 6, 7, etc).  

But make it easy.  Let people new to Logos grab your app from the Windows Store, instead of hassling with going to a website and finding an installer and indexing and so forth. They're that much more likely to become customers and get to a point where they use the desktop program as well, and invest in a base package, and the list goes on.

I realize I might not be a typical customer.  But I've tried all the ways you can use Logos (except the Mac edition of Logos).  I've got a Windows 7 desktop and laptop. I've had tablets - the iPad and various Android tablets from Samsung and Asus and B&N and Amazon.  I've had phones - iOS and Android both.  

More recently, I've tried Windows 8.1 on the Asus T100, a hybrid Windows tablet with detachable keyboard dock.  It's not a perfect device, but it's 'good enough'.  Fast enough processor, big enough screen, adequate keyboard, and excellent battery life.  I can use it as a laptop or undock and use it as a tablet.

It's got full Windows, so I loaded the full Logos 5 program.  It works...but not quickly enough to use for a brief search and not really the best for extended reading.  If the Windows Store app had the features of the Android/iOS apps, that would be perfect.  

Things like downloading multiple books would be nice, but Table of Contents/Verse Picker would be an absolute minimum feature.  Other key features would be Passage Guide and then down the road notes/favorites.

I can do the vast majority of my study/reading in the Android app, and then drop to the desktop application for tricky passages/extended study.  So the app is a very high priority.  

If there's no app, then I am less and less motivated to use Logos.  Then when I see those books sitting idle in my electronic library, I'm tempted to not have the money tied up in Logos.  

If you make it easy to let customers access the books on all their devices, they're more likely to buy Logos books and Vyrso books, whether they need them or not. If you make it hard, they'll look elsewhere - Amazon, Olive Tree, and your other competitors.

You can't support every platform, but limiting yourself to Android and iOS could be as bad a move as supporting everything out there.  

Please reconsider improving the Windows Store app to have at least some of the core features of the Android/iOS Logos apps.

I do not think anyone at Logos actually cares about Windows (touch) Tablet users or Windows Phone users.

Hopefully I will be proven wrong soon.

I don't think that I agree with that.  Logos is a business, and I think they are interested in any format that will be profitable.  I would agree that they may be underestimating the potential of the Windows Tablets.  But if there continue to be more and more of us, they will come around.

I run Logos 5 on my Surface Pro 2, and love it.  But I also could see the advantage of a good Windows 8 app for reading Logos.

I think one thing that would be very important in an Win 8 app, is to allow it to access the Logos 5 library so that one would not have to download double copies of books.  Otherwise I would just prefer to put the book in a floating window and read it from Logos 5.

Bob's reply to the current state of the Windows "metro" app may be found here. It has been discussed in that and other threads over the past months.

I like the Windows ecosystem, but as a Logos user I would be concerned with the deployment of resources by Logos to create an app that is not justified by significant market share. It means that resources used to develop and maintain this app are diverted from other areas where development is needed. Logos 5 is still not feature complete and many Logos users want the feature set of the old Libronix app brought into Logos 5. Many OS X users want attention paid to the Mac app. I personally would like to see the lag in the Android app addressed when adding highlighting.

This is a question of the strategic use of resources. Once the Windows "metro" app gains significantly greater traction, I wouldn't be surprised to see Logos develop for it.

Bill, you make some good points.  I am sure Bob and the Logos leadership will carefully analyze what is in the best interest of the company in allocating resources.  Bob has proven a very good and visionary businessman.

In the mean time I am happy as can be with Logos 5 running on my tablet.  Unless a Windows 8 app allowed use of my full library, including personal books, I would probably wouldn't use it at all.  I would be interested in a windows 8 interface that did allow such use. 

I tried Logos 5 and it's frustratingly clunky (without a keyboard)

I have been struggling with this all week and came on here to post a comment about it when I read Daniel's post.  I have an ASUS t100 and it runs Logos 5 well enough but I only use it when I travel and don't want to carry the big laptop or am just reading.  The biggest problem I have is that I need to highlight what I think is important in my textbooks for reference later but there is no highlight option.  I like to float the panel for whichever book I am reading to make it full screen and then put it in reading mode so I can turn pages instead of scrolling but when I do that I can't bring up the keyboard.  Without the keyboard I can't highlight without adding a note but then I have little note icons all over and it distracts from when I really add a note.  I understand that Logos is a business and as such needs to be profitable and that requires decisions on where to allocate resources but the answer that there is no need to develop a Windows 8 app because users can run full Logos doesn't make sense.  If Logos was more optimized for touch input rather than a keyboard I could accept the logic.  Please consider further development of the Windows app or make the full Logos touch capable for simple highlighting and switching between books.

Has there been any movement with the Windows app? I have the Asus T100 and would love to have an app for the Logos 6.