Sunday, 27 April 2014

Comixology debacle

Well, my New Year's Resolution to blog more has obviously gone well, hasn't it?

But I felt I just had to broadcast my outrage at the new Comixology app which has recently ambushed loyal iOS users...

It's outrageous for this company to unilaterally, and without any prior warning, introduce a new app that removes in-app purchases. You might well wonder why this has caused so much upset. 

Well, for one thing, it means that any stored iTunes credit is now useless for comic purchases. Since comics were pretty much the only thing I purchased with iTunes credit, I now have a chunk of cash sitting in my iTunes account that I'll be forced to spend on stuff I don't want.

Secondly, it's a move that was clearly in nobody's interest but Comixology's. Yes, they'll be able to avoid Apple's cut of sales made through the app. Good for them. But it means I can no longer buy discounted iTunes cards to buy comics, therefore the cost of buying digitally has now increased by approximately 15-20%. Furthermore, I have to go through the nuisance of buying through the Comixology website and then downloading through the app. In what way does the new app improve the user experience? It doesn't. Not in the slightest.

It's a nasty, cynical, greedy, exploitative move by Comixology, and one that came mere weeks after being purchased by Amazon... what a coincidence! Quite honestly, they've probably lost me as a user. Not that they care about me, of course - but they might just care about the hundreds of one-star reviews of the new app accruing on iTunes...

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