» ‘The ComiXology Outrage’

Gerry Conway:

By forcing readers to leave the app and go searching the Comixology website, add books to a cart, process the cart, return to the app, activate download, and wait for their purchases to appear, Comixology has replaced what was a quick, simple, intuitive impulse purchase experience with a cumbersome multi-step process that will provide multiple opportunities along the path for the casual reader to think twice and decide, ah, never mind, I don’t really want to try that new book after all. I’ll stick with what I know. Or worse, when a new casual reader opens the Comixology app for the first time and sees that THERE ARE NO COMICS THERE, and that he or she will have to exit the app and go somewhere else and sign up for a new account, maybe he or she won’t bother buying a comic in the first place.

This is a disaster.

From the perspective of an educated buyer, I’m just going to switch apps to the ones that are more convenient. The Comixology app is basically dead to me. To me the question is what Marvel, DC and the other companies do from here. Amazon has screwed them probably more than it’s screwed Apple and comic book fans. Personally, I’m moving on. For them, though, it’s harder.

(Via Andrew Laurence and Tom Carmony)