Pipeline - Apr 29, 2014

[CBR News]

With comiXology stepping away from in-app purchases for iOS users, Augie puts the pieces together and attempts to make sense of its marketing.


Full article here.

[henchmen]

Yeah, I've had a love/hate relationship with comiXology as it is (or was), Amazon has totally pushed me away now.

I always preferred to collect the actual comic anyway

[flips]

Very nice article… The point that you said was out of scope is a very important point. You will be able to make in app purchases in the future, but it will be using the kindle app on a kindle tablet. This means that soon, there will be a kindle tablet in a bigger dimension for reading fully pages, 10” or even bigger. Given the same aspect ratio as their 8.9”, the tablet would have to be 13” to be true to size. Maybe they would create a 12" to beat apple?

Amazon wants your next tablet purchase to be a kindle, not an ipad. How realistic is that? Well for the hardcore fans, I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility to buy a dedicated tablet for reading comics. I’m sure there are some us out there, that did purchase an ipad with one of the main justifications to be for reading comics.

flips

[Tomppa]

There is no way most people will switch to Kindle just to read comics, they will give up on this habit unless they've become hardcore fans. And since Apple is still the biggest tablet sellers with their Ipad Comixology losing many customers who were casual readers or bought impulsively is guaranteed.

[flips]

I won’t disagree that people will be not purchasing comics due to the increase in the “hassle factor”. I would equate it to not being able to buy an app from your app catalog app and you would instead need to go to a web browser to buy it and then back to your app catalog app to install it. This gives the user another few steps to do, and a few more pauses to contemplate their impulse buy.

Android tablets significantly outpaced ipad sales last year and now are sitting at 60% market share. Would people be more likely to pick up a second tablet for comics if Amazon sold it at a loss? Would they sign up for a contract where you got a deep discount on the tablet if you buy $50 of comics every month?

Look at amazon’s matchbook program. Would they do that for comics? You buy the electronic version and then you get a paper copy for free or a small nominal fee. That would give fans the best of both worlds.

Removal of in app purchases is the tip of the iceberg in the changes that amazon will push on the comic book industry in the coming years. Amazon basically obsoleted the local book store. Will your local comic book shop see the same demise? I hope not, but if you look at the history of book sales, it is difficult to argue that it won’t.

flips

[Eric]

If I'm being completely honest, the Comixology app was the deciding factor in buying my iPad. Space is seriously at a premium in our house and I don't want long boxes around to remind me of what I liked 11 years ago (to take a random number from the top of my head). I never saw those purchases as collector's items or keepsakes to be stored indefinitely, but entertainment for the moment. Sure, if I really liked an issue/series, I'd go back and re-read it, and that would just be money truly well spent. But as I get older and my tastes change, there is less and less that I want to go back and re-read. Heck, some of it I'm outright embarrassed to have liked at one time. I don't care what anyone says, absolutely no one should be found dead with issues of Darkhawk in their house.

While a great majority of my purchases have been driven by sales or freebies, of the 1,000+ comics in my account, I promise you that less than 30 of them were in-app purchases. I understand that this might hurt impulse purchases and it is bad business to create barriers to sales. I understand that new iPad purchasers are going to be disappointed with the spareness of the new app. These are not minor issues.

But I still spent the day of the announcement reading tweets and muttering "lazy crybabies" under my breath. Just my knee jerk reaction.

EM

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Android tablets significantly outpaced ipad sales last year and now are sitting at 60% market share. Would people be more likely to pick up a second tablet for comics if Amazon sold it at a loss? Would they sign up for a contract where you got a deep discount on the tablet if you buy $50 of comics every month?

[...]

Removal of in app purchases is the tip of the iceberg in the changes that amazon will push on the comic book industry in the coming years. Amazon basically obsoleted the local book store. Will your local comic book shop see the same demise? I hope not, but if you look at the history of book sales, it is difficult to argue that it won’t.

To the first paragraph: Good questions. The problem is, Amazon is finally starting to get blowback from Wall Street. We'll see how many of these "crazy" kinds of deals they want to offer in the future as the pressure is finally coming to bear on them to be actually profitable by more than tiny amounts. Also, the people buying these cheap Amazon tablets are not he people who spend lots of money buying stuff to put on them. Same as with Android phones. That could change, of course, but right now the numbers lack a bit of meaning.

To the second: Good point. And with the DOJ being willing lapdogs in protecting Amazon (will there be action now with the latest revelations/accusations from Hachette that Amazon purposefully delays selling their new titles?), Amazon has even more power. They could effectively go after local comic shops in a big way. I just don't know if the margins on even $3.99 comics are enough to effect the same kind of change from Amazon's level.

Right now, it's all up in the air.I'm not ruling anything out. Heck, I wouldn't even rule out buying an Amazon tablet sometime likely in the far future to exclusively read comics on. (A bigger screen at Retina Display capacity would do nicely.)

Ultimately, though, the model of buying a DRMed comic is what's holding me back and why I still spend more of my money on paper comics than digital. I don't want to put all this money into a system that could dry up and disappear tomorrow, taking everything with it.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

But I still spent the day of the announcement reading tweets and muttering "lazy crybabies" under my breath. Just my knee jerk reaction.

I don't disagree with you. But, then, I've also learned from following the tech industry over the years that you can't discount the inherent laziness of users. It's mind blowing.