OliveTree has announced the availability of their BibleReader for the iPhone. There are currently some limitations that the company is working on, and more new features are expected to be available as development continues. Among them:

Greek and Hebrew Bible translations, lexicons, reference works, and fonts

More commentaries, study tools, and Christian eBooks—Olive Tree plans to release over 500 titles for iPhone

Phrase Search

Bookmarks

Auto-Scrolling

Hyperlinked Table of Contents for eBooks

Personal Notes

Support for Images

Highlighting

Split-Screen, to view multiple documents at once

Notes and Cross-References

On the other hand, Laridian also informs that PocketBible for the iPhone will be available soon. No release date has been set yet. Again, Craig Rairdin admits that developing software for the iPhone is rather difficult, but the following key features can be expected to be present when the product ships:

PocketBible for iPhone will support all the books and Bibles as our Windows Mobile application. It is build on the same base of shared code we use for all of our readers.

You will have access to all the books and Bibles you’ve already purchased for other platforms. You will purchase the reader from the iTunes App Store and have free access to any existing content you already own through your account on our Web site.

Search by words, phrases, combinations of words and phrases using Boolean (AND, OR, etc.) logic, and wild-cards (bapt* to match “baptist”, “baptize”, etc. and ?aul to match “Saul” or “Paul”)

Track your daily devotional reading progress.

I don’t have an iPhone myself, but this should come as good news to the increasing number of people who are using the latest “toy” from Cupertino (hey, even Bob Pritchett has seen the light and has got one!). I just wish Apple would make things easier for developers who are trying to program for that particular platform. Is it too much to ask?

Update (August 13): Rick Mansfield offers a preliminary review of BibleReader for the iPhone.