Like many of you the past few days, I touched an iPad. In browsing the many apps, one struck me as particularly remarkable: the Marvel iPad App. While it may not be any more unique than any of the other many print publication apps out there, its implications in the comic industry make it potentially more revolutionary – the short length and highly illustrated nature of the weekly comic make it most ideal for the iPad medium.
Consider the traditional comic subscription model: the subscriber pays an arguably high periodic fee to receive a weekly short story crammed in the mail. With the iPad, an issue is received immediately to be viewed on a clear, bright display. Simply eliminating the need to print and distribute material could dramatically lower costs. And since the distribution format can be regulated by an app, the risk of piracy is reduced.
On the other end of the battlefield, Marvel revolutionary Stan Lee’s son, Jim Lee, offered an opposing opinion as head publisher of DC Comics on the industry trend towards digital distribution, as reported in geek culture blog Geeks of Doom:
“I think at the end of the day, I have not seen anything on the digital side that is more compelling to me than a printed comic,” said Lee in response to a fan question at the panel. “I’ll use Blackest Night as an example. You open that up and — I don’t want to spoil anything — but there’s a spread inside that’s just amazing. You cannot replicate it on a device with a smaller screen.”
Ultimately, he said it’s why DC hasn’t jumped head first onto the digital bandwagon the way other companies have, such as competitor Marvel Entertainment, which released their own iPhone/iPad application to coincide with Saturday’s debut of Apple’s iPad tablet device.
“There’s no real business model for it, in that, it’s not a big part of anyone’s business right now, regardless of if you’re on the iPad tomorrow or not,” Lee said, adding that even when digital does start to carve out a portion of the industry it won’t cannibalize the printed comics because of all the differences it will end up having.
These differences include advantages like having an entire comic collection in your pocket, Instant access to purchase comics and being about to seek out new comics and new tools that will allow creators to tell stories.
“We have to come up with some really compelling content that plays to the advantage of digital distribution. Once we have something like that, that’s when you’ll really see things start to shift,” Lee said.
In a recent Apple Town Hall company meeting, Steve Jobs reportedly lashed out at Google for its aggressive competitive behavior in the past year. An article today in Mashable quoted some of his alleged statements:
When it comes to Google, Jobs is mad at them for trying to “kill the iPhone.” “We did not enter the search business,” he said. “They entered the phone business. Make no mistake: they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.” Finally, his most interesting quote is about Google’s “don’t be evil” mantra. According to Daring Fireball, Jobs simply said: “It’s a load of crap.”
For the past year, Google’s Android handsets have been the iPhone’s greatest threat, with the word “threat” being a matter of perspective. But a threat is still a threat, and while the rivalry is nothing new, it’s certainly growing. A recent article in BusinessWeek points to the rising tensions between the two giants:
Now the companies have entered a new, more adversarial phase. With Nexus One, Google, which had been content to power multiple phonemakers’ devices with Android, enters the hardware game, becoming a direct threat to the iPhone. With its Quattro purchase, Apple aims to create completely new kinds of mobile ads, say three sources familiar with Apple’s thinking. The goal isn’t so much to compete with Google in search as to make search on mobile phones obsolete. “Apple and Google both want more,” says Chris Cunningham, founder of the New York mobile advertising firm Appssavvy. “They’re gearing up for the ultimate fight.”
While Apple succeeds in creating nifty hardware, Google holds strong domination over the information segment. How strong? Apparently strong enough to bring the fat exec and Justin Long together, as word on the Segway states that Bing may oust Google as the default search engine on the iPad. Alexander Vaughn, a blogger for AppAdvice, commented on this news:
If BusinessWeek is right on this one, we might be witnessing soon the next stage of the “Apple vs Microsoft” to “Apple vs Google” paradigm shift. Indeed, according to people “familiar with the matter who asked not to be named” (classical), Apple would be in talks with Microsoft to replace Google by Bing as the iPhone’s default search engine. It’s rumored not to be exclusive and users would still have the possibility to select Google if it suits them more. On the other hand we all know that users tend to usually stick with what they get. It would make sense, in the mobile market at least, Apple’s real rival is Google and its Android, not really Microsoft. Furthermore Apple hasn’t been reluctant to collaborate with Microsoft in the past, think of the iPhone’s Exchange support. While I don’t think we should get concerned that our iPhone will get stripped of Youtube or Gmail any time soon, the Apple-Google battle is definitely heating up.
There isn’t much to say about the iPad that hasn’t been posted, hijacked, reposted, dissected and discussed. We’ve seen the same pictures of Steve Jobs being dwarfed by what looks like a prop iPod and read the same lists explaining why it is or is not so great. People are desperate for some bit of information that nobody else has, which might explain the significant surge in visits to ipad.com. Unfortunately for Apple fans, ipad.com is the login page for a cancer research and support center. Below is a chart generated on Alexa that illustrates the recent jump in pageviews:
No big deal, you say? Possibly not. Ok, probably not. But it is similar to movies that use real phone numbers instead of the fictional 555 prefix; the people who own those numbers get so many calls they have to get a new number (See Bruce Almighty) Another example is the ongoing battle that public figures must wage to ensure that nobody is using their name in a web address to trick people into a visit (many examples lead to adult-themed sites, so no links).
With the exception of Keane’s apartment, iPad is obviously fair game. And anyone who’s had to come up with a name for a band, short story, web site, company or Twitter handle will tell you, it’s almost impossible to come up with something not already taken. But what are the fine people at ipad.com to do when 5 million people check there site out the same day and crash the servers?
