The popular digital comic distributor ComiXology has removed all in-app purchases in the Apple and Google Play versions of the app.
Fans of the app were outraged to find out that the once fast and easy way to buy comics now requires users to go from the app to ComiXology’s website to buy their comics, and then back to the app to download and read them. This essentially makes the new ComiXology app just a digital reader.
Gerry Conway, one of the creators of The Punisher, and the man behind the death of Gwen Stacy wrote a column expressing why this hurts the customers more than it helps Amazon.
“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,” claims Conway in his article.
It is unclear whether or not this change was decided upon by Amazon, who acquired ComiXology at the beginning of this month.
The newest version of ComiXology is now avalaible in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
