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11/04/2002 Interview with Vidal Graupera- president of iambic
When was iambic formed and how many people currently work for the > company?
iambic, Inc. was founded in January of 1994. It is a mid-sized company with headquarters in San Jose, California, and an international office in Montpellier, France. Since our customers are located in all parts of the world, we plan on opening new offices and expanding current offices to better serve our local customers.
What was the original intention for the company and do you feel it has achieved its original goals?
We wanted to create a strong company with a long-term vision and a very creative working environment for the employees. iambic was also formed to take advantage of the huge new opportunity to create products and services that solve real needs of people using handheld devices. Since its beginning, iambic has strived to exceed the needs and expectations of its many software users and the industry by adhering to the strictest standards, focusing on research and development, and creating the most comprehensive and intuitive applications possible. It is through this vision and continued technological innovation that iambic has established itself as a leader in the handheld software market. Today, I think that we have a very substantial base of innovative products and iambic's a great company to work for. Of course, we always strive to achieve more and be better.
How long on average does it take (from start to finish) to develop an iambic application?
It depends on the complexity of the program, but it typically takes 3 to 6 months to create a product from scratch. Since none of our programs are trivial, and we always strive to develop products with extra value and make additional efforts to localize the products to our international markets, it might sometimes take a bit longer.
What has been the most successful iambic product so far and which application are you most proud of?
We've had a number of successful programs, and the popularity of a program sometimes varies from market to market. The most successful and best-known program is definitely Action Names Datebook. At CeBIT 2002, we announced a new edition of Action Names Datebook called Action Names School, created specifically for students on the go. iambic always wanted to create a program that would help scholars to better manage their activities and time. We offered the program to the Sorbonne University students, and they found it tremendously helpful. We plan to make the program available to a number of other international markets, including those in the UK. Another popular product is TinySheet, an Excel-compatible program that allows users to synchronize spreadsheets directly to the handheld device. The program supports 113 mathematical, statistical, financial, text and logic functions, as well as 29 different chart styles. The program's capabilities are unlimited. A new product we just released and gaining rapidly in popularity is BumpAttack Pinball. It comes with two unique tables, DeepSea and Mars, which each have their own themes, layout and challenges. The internet scoreboard gives you the chance to show off your pinball prowess and compete against other players all over the world. Every product has its own value to our specific customer strata, and I'm always proud to offer a product that helps to advance our customers' handheld experience. Action Names is probably our best known program, and I'm very proud of it. iambic takes great pride in its diverse line of software titles and the functionality of our offerings - iambic's goal has always been, and will continue to be, to provide as many complete solutions as necessary to fulfill the needs of its customers.
Can we expect to see new products or significant upgrades to your products in the near future and will Action Names continue to be updated so frequently? (any hints as to what they may be?)
We always strive to add more and more features and exceed the capabilities of software products available on the market today. Our R&D group always looks at potential requirements and angles our programs can take. In the next few months you will see new innovative features in Action Names. We not only want to meet, but exceed our customers' capabilities. In fact, just for your readers, I'd like to mention that the new version of Action Names will be released in the next few weeks. It has some additional features that Sony CLIE users will be particularly interested in.
What's your favourite Palm application and game by another developer?
My favorite Palm application is TomTom's English-French dictionary. I study French and find it tremendously helpful to have it in a mobile format. My favorite games are Pocket Chess and Power Run.
Any plans to develop for other PDA's besides Palm powered devices?
We are always looking at different new devices, and we didn't start as a Palm-only company. iambic was one of the first companies to develop software for handheld computers, beginning with the development of a time-and-expense-tracking solution that was initially created for the Apple Newton PDA.
What's your favourite song of all time?
My favorite song is "When Tomorrow Comes" by The Eurythmics.
You were one of the first developers to support the Clie's enhanced features- why was the decision made to support hi-res devices?
The technological breakthrough was very attractive. Multiplying by four the amount of viewable space on a limited-sized screen adds tremendous potential to any application that needs to display as much information as possible in one view. Handheld devices are used by people on the go. Being able to display four times more data on the same screen decreases the need to tap over to scroll or change views.
Where do you see the PDA industry going in the short term?
The industry is still in the transition and evolution phase. Though we see many attractive new features, we are still in the early part of the industry development. We already saw many attractive features offered by industry leaders like Sony Electronics, such as rotating color screens, built-in cameras and phones. The devices also have a much nicer design and become smaller in size.
Finally, would you be prepared to offer a reg code to one of your programs as a competition prize on Clie World?
Sure, iambic would be happy to offer our programs as competition prizes for CLIE World. Your readers are very important to us, and we would like to participate in the event. We also want to take the opportunity to thank all of the Sony CLIE owners for using iambic programs, so we have a special offer for your readers this month -- a $5 discount on any iambic download directly from our web site (minimum program value must be $10). The code is CLIEWorld. Thank you very much for the interview, Shaun. I wish you, your publication and CLIE World readers a very successful year.
Thanks to Vidal for taking the time to answer my questions and for offering the very generous discount to Clie World's visitors. Special mentions also to Adriano Chiaretta (Engineering Manager) who helped with some of the questions and Katia Shabanova for arranging the interview. If you would like to take advantage of the special offer or just see why iambic have become so successful please visit their site.