Forum - View topicNEWS: Viz Sells Downloadable Manga via iPad App
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Vertical_Ed
Company Representative
Posts: 278 Location: New York, NY |
|
|||||||||
In one year or so of sales Apple has sold around 11,000,000 units in the US. Analysts in the publishing industry believe they should sell between 15 to 20,000,000 total by the end of the holiday season (end of Jan 2011). I don't know what those numbers are like compared to netbook or laptop sales, however the publishing industry is really keeping an eye on book trends on the iPad possibly more so than trends on the Kindle and definitely more than laptops (mainly because the portability element sets the Kindle, Nook and iPad apart). |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
|
|||||||||
|
What portability Ed?
Do iPads shrink to fit in your pocket? Do they weigh a lot less? Can you think of any situation where you could use an iPad that you couldn't use a laptop? I'd love to hear. Cause as far as I've seen, an iPad is just a thin laptop that can't even do what computers have been doing since the 80s, multi-tasking. I can't imagine it being any more or less portable. But I honestly haven't given it much thought, so I'd love to hear why one of the industries I'm interested in supporting is leaning that way. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Vertical_Ed
Company Representative
Posts: 278 Location: New York, NY |
|
|||||||||
They are about the size of a hardcover book and weigh a little more. I mean you can't usually put books in your pocket either.
Honestly and this is just my opinion I feel the manga industry is looking at the iPad because it is a better alternative to the Kindle in almost every way...at this time. Kindle does not normally support right to left pages. It has a tough time formatting PDFs properly as it uses its own proprietary version of ePub. Therefore pages often look fine on one version of the kindle (resolution is generally grainy at this point) but look poor on other versions of the kindle (IE kindle for PC, Kindle for Android, Kindle for iPad). The kindle doesn't do color, so those pages are out. Until recently the kindle didn't do two page spreads, which are critical to manga as there are many situations like that. The iPad's DRM is slightly tougher. And the iPad allows publishers to create apps that will give them better royalty terms with their authors, instead of having to work through a middleman creating a potential. As far as publishing in general is concerned, the Kindle dominates when considering all book reading online in the US. The iPad isn't close. However publishers are currently being agnostic in regard to platform which helps consumers ultimately. That said, as I noted above, certain books like comics, cookbooks, photobooks, atlases or even graphic heavy non-fiction do not transfer well to the Kindle at this time and the iPad is looked as a great alternative for releasing those books digitally. That said, I'm not going to debate the iPad in regards to whether it is an alternative to personal computing because it does not compare. I just jumped in to give you data as you initially asked for numbers. So I hope some of these points help. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
|
|||||||||
|
They help immensely Ed, as it gives me a small look in at what you guys are thinking, and I appreciate you taking the time to go through and list what advantages you see the iPad as having.
I can certainly take this news a lot better knowing that the format the iPad uses is more fitting for manga/comics/graphic novels. I assume that there is no cross-platform software such as iTunes that is in the works for viewing such manga/comics/books/etc on different systems though, correct? Well, the digitization has to make progress via small steps before the big leaps happen. Last edited by Megiddo on Tue Nov 02, 2010 11:53 am; edited 1 time in total |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
|
|||||||||
The iPad is the first handheld device that allows easy viewing of manga page by page, hence its prominent position in publisher's plans ~ if they get things worked out for iPad, they ought to be able to translate that to other slates. Not the last, though, I reckon the ColorNook has sufficient resolution and greyscale range to allow easy viewing of manga page by page, but its got a custom and garden walled version of Android pending Android 3.0 that is made for slate computers. Once Android 3.x is in wide release, that'll be a natural target for expanding whatever system has been worked out for the iPad.
I'm certainly not buying an iPad, but when an Android 3.x slate is available for a reasonable price, I'm definitely getting one. Last edited by agila61 on Tue Nov 02, 2010 4:14 pm; edited 2 times in total |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Vertical_Ed
Company Representative
Posts: 278 Location: New York, NY |
|
|||||||||
Let me state that Vertical at this time is not actively looking to putting manga on the iPad or on mobile devices. However as our licensing partner Tezuka Productions have and are doing both, and are using our translations and files, we are quite aware of the issues with cross-platforming.
There are currently a few Zinio is one. Comixology has publisher specific apps on the iPad but I believe some of their books are also cross-platform. The drawback is distribution costs and formatting costs. It takes a lot of time, effort and quality control to make sure every thing works properly cross-platform (heck some websites look bad on different operating systems). So even worse for web-based viewers (with DRM...now if publishers were looking at DRM free models that might not be as big of an issue.) |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
bahamut623
 Posts: 1463 |
|
|||||||||
Well, on a crowded NY subway, whether you're sitting or standing, a laptop is quite inconvenient. But on a daily basis I see people barely holding on to the hand rails packed like sardines, yet still with Ipads and Kindles in hand. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
|
|||||||||
|
This is their major announcement?
I don't mean to sound like Luddite, but manga on electronic medium is bullshit. If I can't cut my finger on it, I'm not buying it. Call me when Viz stops trying to be a bunch of trendy douchebags. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
|
|||||||||
That just about covers it, I think. From a publisher's perspective, the very hack-ability of releasing manga on Windows (or even Mac) is such a huge minus that I probably would think twice before doing it. iPad is a big enough market, has a good enough user experience, and it's secure enough that it's a pretty good way of dipping your toe in the water, as a publisher at least. Time will tell if it'll be successful, but not having printing/shipping/warehousing/inventory costs involved will make it possible to have more manga available that won't necessarily sell enough to justify a print run. If you're not personally interested, that's fine, but no need to complain to the world how little you care. Just because we have a forum doesn't mean you need to post something. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
gartholamundi
 Posts: 316 Location: Gainesville, FL |
|
|||||||||
plus, Yoshitoshi ABe has one. 
animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-04-15/lain-yoshitoshi-abe-demos-ipad-finger-painting-app |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Vertical_Ed
Company Representative
Posts: 278 Location: New York, NY |
|
|||||||||
I want to jump in about this... Actually at a recent Digital Books conference in NYC, the issue about printing, shipping, warehouse, inventory was almost mute specifically for visual heavy books. While those costs are practically gone, new costs are suddenly included that are not present for regular prose books. Costs mainly come from the following: new rights costs, much higher royalties (2 to 3 times higher), file converting for multiple platforms (which could be as expensive for color as it is to print a book!!), distribution costs (yup unless you work directly with each of the service providers directly there is a 10 to 20% distribution fee...and if you do work with them all separately then file conversion costs go through the roof as the majority use their own ePub or secure PDF standards), QC costs. About half of those costs are one time costs (much like printing and rights are with paper books), but distribution costs and royalties will always be there and they are now considerably higher than for print. At this conference, hardware makers were saying unless you make specific apps custom designed for your type of books (as Viz and Marvel have) visual heavy books should be avoided by publishers. And unless pubs have the financial resources, IE marketing money, many of those who do go that route better not consider this a game changer...yet, as overall sales have not been that strong. They said "yet" because the Nook Color is coming soon and more tablets will join the market eventually, potentially creating a better sample set to collect consumer data from. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Cosplaybunny
 Posts: 224 |
|
|||||||||
|
While I'm happy to see manga getting more digital releases (especially if it gets manga in the hands of more people) it also has me a little worried. My main concern is how the manga industry is going to handle the third party censorship that companies like apple have on products released for their hardware. Viz may not have much to worry about with their manga line but Apple has shown themselves to be fairly inconsistent with what products get rejected and never give reasons behind rejecting the material. I'd hate to see manga censored because of a third party company.
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Magnab
Posts: 16 |
|
|||||||||
|
This is good news but not something I see myself getting into right now.....I don't see myself going out to buy an ipad at its current prices, I checked the prices on apple.com and there is no way I'm going to pay those prices. If this was available for your computer or even available for the Kindle or NOOK then I would give it a try, those prices I'm ok with but until then I'll be watching from the sidelines. I hope they see sales and are able to branch out to other devices.
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
lkmjr
Posts: 68 Location: Austin, Texas |
|
|||||||||
|
THank goodness. This has needed to happen for so long–! Still, Japan needs to jump on the bandwagon. Once they start legally streaming anime and publishing manga digitally the world will become a much better place.
Though I sort of have to wonder how Japanese fans would respond to this. It seems like we hear a lot about Japanese companies' opinions but not much about what the fans themselves think – on one hand, I imagine it would be a lot cheaper for them, but on the other, I can see a lot of them being avid collectors who wouldn't respond well to the shift toward digital media. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
|
|||||||||
|
Thanks for the info, Vertical_Ed. I have admittedly not kept up with this side of the business.
One question, though... Is file conversion really that proprietary and difficult? Video can be challenging, but can be automated quite easily. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group