In a milestone week for the Digital Comics Arms Race, following the public launch of Sweet Shop, Neon Ichiban launches their 3.0 update bringing in-app purchasing and expanded desktop functionality. Earlier this summer, Neon Ichiban released a 2.5 update which brought Commissionable Remarques to the platform in the lead up to San Diego Comic Con. Today, Neon Ichiban released their latest update, streamlining the ability to make purchases within the app on both Apple and Android devices.
The press release highlights co-founder of Comixology David Steinberger’s (co-founder and CEO of Neon Ichiban) and Chip Mosher’s (co-founder and president of Neon Ichiban) history with Comixology. Following the acquisition of Comixology by Amazon in 2014, the ability to make in-app purchases was removed from the platform. This is similar to how in-app purchases cannot be made in Amazon’s Kindle apps for both Apple and Android devices. Both the App Store and Google Play Store take a percentage of all sales made of digital goods through apps downloaded from their storefronts. According to the press release, being able to make purchases directly in the Neon Ichiban app is meant to remove the extra steps needed to make a purchase. Mosher wrote, “Comics are a Wednesday-morning, ‘buy it now’ business. You see the cover. Someone tells you a book is great. A creator you love drops something new. You want it right then. Every extra step between discovering that comic and reading it is friction. Neon Ichiban 3.0 takes those steps back out.” The press release also emphasizes that Neon Ichiban’s goal for the platform is to… “[create] a digital comics experience built around how fans actually discover, purchase, read, collect, and talk about comics.”
Additionally, the 3.0 update introduces new features to the Mac desktop beta. According to the press release, “While Neon Ichiban 3.0 makes buying new comics dramatically easier, its expanding Mac Desktop beta tackles another problem digital comics readers have lived with for years: Where are all the comics you already bought? For many fans, the answer is: everywhere. Years of Kickstarter campaigns, Humble Bundles, direct-from-creator purchases, and other digital releases have created sizable personal comics collections scattered across downloads folders, external drives and cloud storage. Those files belong to the same reader. But they have rarely felt like the same collection.” Neon Ichiban users can now import DRM-free PDF, CBZ, and CBR files into their digital collection through the desktop app. The platform is also working towards integrating the Grand Comics Database to help organize and categorize imported comics.
The ability to make in-app purchases and import digital comics on Mac are the latest features introduced in Neon Ichiban’s 3.0 update. Both the Mac and Android applications are currently in open beta while iOS went live earlier this year. For more coverage of digital comics news check out The Beat’s reporting on digital sales numbers or the launch of the latest platform, Sweet Shop.
