In a strangely worded email the (number two?) digital comic book distributor bowed out of the
comic realm for the foreseeable future. It’s a bit shocking to me as I’ve monitored Graphicly
from the beginning. They seemed to make all the right moves getting involved
with the huge internet community iFanboy and having all books available on
multiple platforms.
An excerpt from the email detailing upcoming changes
pertaining to Comic book readers:
So what does this mean for you, the Graphicly user? Here’s a
list of the changes that will be occurring:As of this week, we will be retiring the previously-released
Graphicly Comics marketplace applications.
Our iPhone, iPad and Android applications, as well as a our Adobe AIR
Desktop application will no longer be
available for download.If you have purchased titles and use these apps, you will
still be able to read your titles via the apps, but you simply will not be able
to purchase titles through the apps anymore.Your complete library of purchased titles will be still be,
and always be, available to be purchased and read via our website at
http://graphicly.com/store as well as through our Facebook Application
(http://apps.facebook.com/graphicly/).
Many companies make changes to their business model to increase profit but this seems like a step in the wrong direction. Also more conversations on the ‘Do I rent it or own it?’ debate are already flaring up. Can the digital platform only support one distributor?