Move over, Archie Andrews — Apple’s iPhone has moved in on your Riverdale love triangle!
Archie Comics’ blog has announced that the Betty and Veronica Christmas Spectacular will be released exclusively on Apple’s iTunes store. The company had already teamed up with iVerse Media, with Archie Freshman Year #1 sweeping online stores in terms of downloads.
According to their release, “the Betty & Veronica Spectacular title was saved from cancellation by a fan-organized movement on Facebook earlier in the year,” so perhaps digital is the new method of distribution for excess material — indeed, one of the biggest costs for publishing ANYTHING is printing it, so maybe this allows Betty and Veronica to have a wider margin in sales.
That said, I’m curious about a few things — first and foremost, that the book is $1.99. (Books such as Atomic Robo and Star Trek are doing gangbusters at 99 cents.) Additionally, as Brigid Alverson notes, what is the overlap in terms of Archie readers and iPhone users? What do you say about all this?
November 26th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
There are around 20million iPhones in circulation – and several million more iPod touches (which are compatible)
16% of teens aspire to own an iPhone (http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/04/07/16-of-teens-30-of-professionals-plan-to-buy-iphones/)
I’d say there are more potential buyers of an iPhone Archie comic than there are potential buyers of a print Archie comic.
-pj
November 27th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I realize this isn’t the focus of the conversation, but I have to say that the gradient based coloring there is absolutely garish. I’d rather see flat coloring that accentuates the line work than the mess that they’ve created there in pursuit of realism.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:56 am
I have a LOTUS, not an Iphone. If I can purchase it for my computer I will.