What's Up With OliveTree?

I am irritated, and a bit troubled, by OliveTree Bible study software (https://www.olivetree.com/).

Once upon a time, they were really prompt about making study resources available for purchase within the OliveTree app. Sometimes, the release of the print version coincided with the e-version and a nearly simultaneous OliveTree-formatted version. Today, they are really slow about new releases of actual study materials. Oh, there are plenty of Christian Living type (trade paperback) books coming up in OliveTree; but commentaries and the like are few and far between.

Are they going to just retire on their current academic offerings? Some examples:

* The soon-to-be-released 1&2 Thessalonians commentary in the Paideia commentary set has been in the "Upcoming Releases" OliveTree page, along with the complete New Testament Paideia set. Today, both modules are no longer in the list.

* The Jewish Study Bible Notes 2nd Edition module has been on the list for a LONG time. E-versions in other formats (e.g., Kindle) have been available for some time. (In fairness, this may be an Oxford Publishing problem. Many of the high-end Oxford study resources have never been widely available in electronic format).

* The KJV Hebrew and Hebrew-Greek to English interlinear Bibles have been in the "Upcoming" for forever. What's the holdup?

* There is a new edition of the Jerome Commentay, The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, Third Fully Revised Edition (Catholic), ETA 2022. No whisper of its anticipated availability in OliveTree.

* The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition in being released in about six weeks. Isn't OliveTree in any kind of negotiation to offer the translation for the app?

I also think it strange that they are preparing the new Christian Standard Commentary volumes for release; but these commentaries are word-for-word duplicates of the New American Commentary set (same publisher) which is already available in OliveTree—for half the price! 

OliveTree used to offer a new sale every week, starting every Sunday afternoon. Now the "This Week's Sale" starts arbitrarily on some weekday and it drags on for 2½ to 3 weeks. The "This Weekend Only Sale" drags on or two weekends. This week's "Midnight Sale: A New Deal Every Night" makes no sense. There is not a new deal every night. The typical sale prices are not so wonderful as they used to be either.

I know the sales team has to ask publishers for permission to put their books on sale. Does anybody at OliveTree have that job anymore. Is the employee in charge of publisher relations too busy with divided responsibilities?

I was somewhat nervous about buying electronic reference books because, if OliveTree ever folds, I might loose my books! Most of the time, when a software company folds, some similar company buys them out and also absorbs their customer base. QuickBooks (Intuit), for example, once bought out another accounting software and they created a conversion tool to convert the books in the other software over to QuickBooks. All the customers form the other software recieved free copies of QuickBooks.

It doesn't always work that way. I was once a customer of a Bible software called QuickVerse. They folded. They were bought out by another Bible software called WordSearch. WordSearch never tried to accommodate QuickVerse customers like me and I lost all my QuickVerse purchases. WordSearch was recently absorbed into Logos Bible software. Logos did accommodate former WordSearch customers. They were able to keep their former purchases. If WordSearch had transitioned my QuickVerse stuff over, I would probably be a Logos customer today. If OliveTree gets absorbed into Logos, I will not be real happy since there are some really annoying features of Logos. (You have to pay for software updates; they want you to subscribe to stuff rather than buy it; it nearly requires an Internet connection to use). However, at least I will be able to keep my OliveTree purchases.