Amazon's comiXology announces daily comic giveaway promotion

Posted:
in iPhone edited June 2014
After being purchased by Amazon in April, popular iOS comic book app comiXology on Monday announced its "Summer Reading List" campaign that gives users 20 free comics over the course of 20 days.



As noted by TechHive, comiXology is already one day into its summertime promotion, but new and existing users can still take advantage of 19 free comics to be released in as many days.

The first comic, DC #871 "Batman -- The Black Mirror Part 1, was released on Monday, while today's freebie is a special digital edition of Gold Key's "Magnus: Robot Fighter." The company will continue to announce new titles through June 14, when the promotion is scheduled to end.

ComiXology ruffled some feathers in April when it discontinued its longtime Comics iOS app, which effectively removed in-app purchasing from the title. Instead of paying Apple's usual 30 percent commission fee, parent company Amazon released a new version of the app that forces users to make purchases through Safari.

At the time, the comiXology offered existing account holders a $5 gift card to switch over to the new app, which was last updated on May 6.

Monday's summer promotion is the latest bid from comiXology to gain a fresh user base after Amazon bought the company in April. It was speculated that Comics' unique "Guided View" technology for reading made-for-print comics would be integrated into Amazon's Kindle ecosystem.

Alongside its proprietary comic reading tech, ComiXology is responsible for digital copies of content from a wide range of publishers including Marvel and DC Comics. In addition, the company holds exclusive iOS content rights to major titles like "The Walking Dead."

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member

    POUNCE!

    Thanks for the heads up AI.

  • Reply 2 of 20
    No thank you.

    By removing the ability to purchase content through iTunes, they've lost me as a customer.
  • Reply 3 of 20
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member

    Amazon really messed up a good app.

     

    I've heard nothing less than across the board criticism of the change to the purchasing experience they've instituted.

  • Reply 4 of 20
    applesauce007applesauce007 Posts: 1,698member

    No Thanks.

  • Reply 5 of 20
    ecatsecats Posts: 272member
    Amazon is the sort of company that will spend 40% of the sales price in marketing activities to avoid a 30% cut through the platform that effortlessly delivers them customers. Worse, they'll then squeeze the content creators and license holders to make up the difference, and then some. This tactic is only available to those who hold a monopoly.

    Amazon's treatment of vendors is not what we want to see in comics, the idea that Amazon will artificially hold back new or existing titles to negotiate a fraction of a penny in shareholder value is repugnant.

    If they were legitimately interested in serving customers, they'd negotiate without harming the content creators and customers who can't get what they want. The savings Amazon negotiate are negligible to the end customer and only serve to offset their monopolistic undercutting activities.

    We all know what is better at putting money in the bank. It's not switching off potential sales streams as a negotiation tactic.
  • Reply 6 of 20
    plovellplovell Posts: 824member
    Yet another Amazon dumb move.

    Recent score: 2/2
  • Reply 7 of 20
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member

    Taking a page from the big g: giving away freebies to win over customers (everyone loves free as in free beer!) so they can do more of this.

  • Reply 8 of 20
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    It's not about Apple vs. Amazon re the % that Apple gets.

    Amazon doesn't care about that % number, and it wouldn't even matter if Apple lowered the number to zero and handled the transaction at a loss. Same with Android: Amazon removed Google Play purchasing too.

    Amazon cares about having your credit card number. THEY want to have that number, not leave it walled off within your Apple account. Because if they have your credit card number, they can more easily sell you all KINDS of things in all kinds of ways.

    They may sell fewer comics than the old Comixology, but Amazon wants to sell more than comics, and their plans are long-term.

    The only way Amazon would allow in-app purchases on an Apple device is if you STILL needed to give Amazon your credit card number.

    Apple's right not to budge on that: if any app could simply implement their own payment system, then you have the same wild west as web purchases and Android. Which is fine--and Apple will always allow you to do what you want on the web--but EVERYONE loses (Apple, developers, users) if you can no longer trust that in-app purchases are equally as secure as purchasing an app to begin with.

    And it wouldn't just be Amazon who jumped into the fray: everyone and his mother would want your credit card to avoid Apple's markup or get your contact info--or to steal your money or identity in some cases. Apple could set rules and let people flag offenders and remove them when caught, but that's locking the barn after the horses have fled.

    So apps would move even more to the free-with-IAP model, and the IAPs wouldn't even be trustworthy anymore.

    The only solution is for Amazon to not be Amazon! Or for some other comic service to step up...
  • Reply 9 of 20
    No thank you.

    By removing the ability to purchase content through iTunes, they've lost me as a customer.

    I micturate in your general direction...
  • Reply 10 of 20
    tubbyteetubbytee Posts: 68member
    Whatever.
  • Reply 11 of 20
    danoxdanox Posts: 2,804member
    Amazon never ever for Video, Music, Books or Comics.
  • Reply 12 of 20
    bestkeptsecretbestkeptsecret Posts: 4,265member

    I am seeing the first signs of falling service from Amazon now. I always loved their sales and after-sales service.

     

    However, off late, there are too many items listed that are not fulfilled by Amazon. That means that most of them do not ship to where I stay. It really is frustrating.

     

    They do have a search now for Amazon Fulfilled stuff, but there is just too many sellers there now.

     

    As for Comixology, I never liked the app much anyway, but I'm in it for the free comics! I got the $5 gift card, which is the most I ever spent on Comixology and now free comics. Of course, it is stuff like Magnus: Robot Fighter, but that's ok. I get to explore new books I wouldn't have otherwise bought.

  • Reply 13 of 20
    oomuoomu Posts: 130member
    macky the macky 05/27/2014 11:59 PM

    Amazon also lost me as a customer by gutting Comixology.
    You can micturate and quote Monty Python as much as you want.
  • Reply 14 of 20
    trumptmantrumptman Posts: 16,464member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post

     

    Amazon really messed up a good app.

     

    I've heard nothing less than across the board criticism of the change to the purchasing experience they've instituted.


     

    The criticism I read that was across the board was directed at Apple for their app store policy changes that forced everyone to alter their apps. That has also been true with the Mac app store and the sandboxing requirement.

     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by nagromme View Post



    It's not about Apple vs. Amazon re the % that Apple gets.



    Amazon doesn't care about that % number, and it wouldn't even matter if Apple lowered the number to zero and handled the transaction at a loss. Same with Android: Amazon removed Google Play purchasing too.



    Amazon cares about having your credit card number. THEY want to have that number, not leave it walled off within your Apple account. Because if they have your credit card number, they can more easily sell you all KINDS of things in all kinds of ways.



    They may sell fewer comics than the old Comixology, but Amazon wants to sell more than comics, and their plans are long-term.



    The only way Amazon would allow in-app purchases on an Apple device is if you STILL needed to give Amazon your credit card number.



    Apple's right not to budge on that: if any app could simply implement their own payment system, then you have the same wild west as web purchases and Android. Which is fine--and Apple will always allow you to do what you want on the web--but EVERYONE loses (Apple, developers, users) if you can no longer trust that in-app purchases are equally as secure as purchasing an app to begin with.



    And it wouldn't just be Amazon who jumped into the fray: everyone and his mother would want your credit card to avoid Apple's markup or get your contact info--or to steal your money or identity in some cases. Apple could set rules and let people flag offenders and remove them when caught, but that's locking the barn after the horses have fled.



    So apps would move even more to the free-with-IAP model, and the IAPs wouldn't even be trustworthy anymore.



    The only solution is for Amazon to not be Amazon! Or for some other comic service to step up...

     

    It need not be the wild west. That is nonsense. Most apps now allow logging in using an array of accounts. The app could have allowed you to log in using your Amazon account or your apple account and Amazon would have offered a promotion available to make the Amazon account the default. You know, something like 20 free comics in 20 days.

  • Reply 15 of 20
    applezillaapplezilla Posts: 941member

    Deleted it.

  • Reply 16 of 20
    It comes down to who do you trust. Do you trust Apple with its currently secure Apple ID and iTunes accounting system, or do you trust some other trading partner more? Frankly, while I'm an Amazon Prime member, I still have less trust in Amazon than I have in Apple. And I trust any other online store far, far less than either of them.

    No, Apple had been reliable and secure for many, many years, and had worked to make my purchasing experience as frictionless as possible. Amazon was once in that league, but has steadily gotten worse of late, increasingly bothersome and pushy. Their strong-arm treatment of their vendors, creators and partners has become atrocious. It's one thing to claim to be trying to hold down costs for we consumers, but an entirely different thing to be driving good vendors and creators I like out of the market, just to maintain a monopoly.
  • Reply 17 of 20
    singularitysingularity Posts: 1,328member
    All I can say the android version has become so much better since the change to in app purchasing for iOS. I buy all the comics on my nexus 7 and then download to my iPhone as required if I want to read them on it.
  • Reply 18 of 20
    trumptmantrumptman Posts: 16,464member

    I've tried a few of these comics now through the app. I don't see how it is any different from comics in the Kindle app.

  • Reply 19 of 20
    benjamin frostbenjamin frost Posts: 7,203member
    Comixology has a one star rating in the UK App Store over 470 ratings.
  • Reply 20 of 20
    You guys have drank the Steve Jobs Kool-aid for too long. Hackett, Apple and others are guilty of price fixing. Apple is making 30% just for providing a delivery vehicle. That is ridiculous. This is why you hardly see any mortgage brokers any more, because the used to rape their clients. But hey, at least the government restricted them to an 8% raping.
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