Just two weeks after being purchased by Amazon, digital comic book seller ComiXology has announced that it’ll be retiring its app in favor of a new read-only version that requires users to purchase comic books via their website, much like Amazon does with its Kindle app.
I saw many people call this the day Amazon bought them.
Yeah, no big surprise here, I was wondering how long it would take for Amazon to refuse to give Apple 30% of comic sales. They definitely pissed off existing customers based on the slew of 1 star reviews for the new app, but Amazon did the same thing with the Kindle app back in the day and customers ended up adjusting their expectations and moved on. Typical big corporation buys little guy mentality.
I also saw a lot of mac people saying Amazon lets
their subsidiaries independently. Ha. Ha.
Obviously those are outside the publishing purview.
I am sure Apple could whip out a iComicsBooks/iComicsBookStore
in a week and have all the comics be sold their instead of
iBookStore.
How much does Amazon take out of Kindle sales? Isn’t it anywhere from 30% to 75%? Will they be doing the same for comics now?
Apple really should change their policy on this one. It only hurts us not having content directly available.
So much for convenience.
Wait – Apple should change their policy?
How about Amazon should play by the Store rules, like everyone else.
All this does is open the comics market on iOS up to competition. And yes, Amazon will then start selling comics for less than they cost, but that’s big business for you.
Idn’t this similar to what they do with books and eBooks, and then lobbied to have Apple sued for trying to make the model fair for all? And then won?
This isn’t about money – Amazon have never cared about profits. It’s about providing a worse experience for iPad users and try to lure folks away to their proprietary Kindle platform instead.
So there you go ComiXology customers – Amazon thinks screwing Apple over for a measly 30% cut (while still charging the same 30% for its own Amazon app store) is more important than providing a good user experience.
Yes, they added the policy where every single transaction HAS to go through their system. You can’t even mention your online store or link to it. Also, not everyone plays by the store rules [see Spotify, Microsoft, etc].
Sweet on opening up the comics market. That never hurts consumers. I have no opinion on your conjecture regarding lower comic prices.
I won’t take the bait on the e-book suit but Apple wasn’t helping consumers by breaking the law. It was self-serving.
It’s funny, the people who said Amazon would never do this are the same ones saying Apple is to blame.
Media or someone in particular?
Surprised it took them this long. Let’s monetize everything. And, with new unimproved non net neutrality, it looks like a triple word score.
Why should Apple change their policy?
Their platform and payments system is what Comixology was built on. Without the iPad and Apple’s customers there is no way Comixology would be as large as it is today. 30% for access to Apple’s paying customers, payment system, distribution system, and the most used tablet platform is fair. It’s a much better deal than someone trying to go it completely alone.
Also, if it were about the 30% shouldn’t we immediately see a 30% drop across the board for all Comixology comics?
Yes, they should.
I don’t know Comixology but you can’t state they wouldn’t be as big if Apple let them integrate their own store. apple’s payment system isn’t responsible for their growth, their comics are.
I’m not sure why you assume it is hard to “go it completely alone” though. There are so many easy payment solutions now.
You should see a 30% drop if, and only if, Comixology marked up their comics on the iPad; btw, Apple frowns on that as well.
Less than that. They already sell some comics titles in iBooks. If they could add guided view to the mix it would be a total win
Do you think it’s free to get on a retail brick and mortar store shelf? Usually the wholesale price is significantly more than 30%, usually more than 50%.
Apple’s choice of 30% is a bargain especially when you consider the audience they bring.
Imagine a small content company trying to sell their latest ebook or comic book that has to create a complete payment system (or pay not inexpensive fees for something that exists), create their own hardware platform, and perform all their own marketing and advertising because there is no discovery as they don’t have a user base to start from.
I can absolutely state Comixology wouldn’t be as big as they are without the iPad. Their sales didn’t explode until the iPad was available. Even the founder of the company credits the iPad for their rapid growth:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/58341-comixology-at-comic-con-2013-exponential-growth.html
So weird to bring up brick and mortar in this discussion. This doesn’t even compare.
We’re not discussing people building their own marketplaces. This is about buying content from someone who most likely has an outside payment processor [Authorize.net, etc or all-in-one’s like Stripe or Recurly] having to ditch their current system and pay Apple 30% of their price without marking it up by 30% because Apple blocks it. In essence, they have to change their business to work on 70% of their normal income.
You absolutely stated the wrong thing. I said “if Apple let them integrate their own store”, not if they didn’t have the iPad. Being on the iPad and Apple’s payment system being the reason for their massive growth are two completely different things.
Bottom line, Amazon has all of their own infrastructure setup for payments; therefore, why pay Apple 30%?
Dropbox, Spotify, Microsoft, etc, etc, etc, etc do the same thing: keep all their profits. Don’t come up with wild reasons why they can’t make it without Apple’s payment system because it simply is not true.
“they have to change their business to work on 70% of their normal income.”
No, they don’t. Their business didn’t exist at the same volume before Apple came along with iOS and the App Store and made in-app purchases simple for the end user.
Why should Apple let third parties integrate their own store? Apple provides the user base. This is a user base with something like 800M credit cards on file. It’s trusted. It offers many advantages over an infinite number of disparate systems that developers might offer.
And yes, Apple’s payment system is THE reason for the growth of Comixology. Without question that is the case. They weren’t a part of Amazon with the ability to have their own payment structure until about 40 days or so ago.
Why should Amazon pay Apple 30%? We will see if they need to. Certainly they don’t technically need to as they can sell through the web, but I have a feeling sales will dip significantly, pissing off publishers and users alike.
Microsoft doesn’t keep all their profits, BTW. You can purchase Office 365 through an in-App purchase and Apple keeps 30%.
Your opinion, obviously strong, is wrong IMHO. Just being on the iPad with an option to buy an comic would have been enough to spur that growth.
Yes, it is easier to just type your iTunes password but if someone wanted a comic they would not bat an eye at typing in their credit card number once to enter it into their system. It happens all of the time on other platforms [desktop and mobile].
Lastly, your argument about volume making up for the 30% drop in profit is just silly. Example: it costs me $10 to make Product X, I price it at $17 then Apple takes 30%. I now have to operate at a price of $11.90 [only $1.90 profit, in this case]. Volume will not make up for me losing those $6. Volume will help tremendously but I still have a $6 drop.
This is exactly why app developers cannot make a living/keep the lights on selling apps. The 30% is killing their bottom line. [search google, you’ll see proof of what I’m saying here]
they do this a lot – anyone with a “dead” library of Mobipocket books will attest that Amazon treat DRM content owners with complete distain, locking you out, trashing the experience, ceasing development.
The sooner someone creates an alternative the better.
Oh, did anyone notice Amazon reducing prices by 30% outside the iOS App Store? No? Thought not.
You can buy Amazon apps in the iOS App Store for 30% more or did you mean books? If books, I ask the same question: you can buy books from Amazon for 30% more from somewhere on the iPad other than your browser?