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NEWS: Developer: 30% of Kodansha Manga Rejected by iTunes

Issues of censorship, and the almighty DRM. Both equally unappealing.

It seems similar to the Dance in the Vampire Bund ordeal. It's Apple's choice not to put out these products. Still, there is an audience so I don't see why they don't want to make a little cash.

Apple's been in the news lately for its draconian approach to its rules for developers to develop and offer applications.

I should point out Apple has every right to do this as it is their service. Unfortunately, Apple has yet to learn from its own history on how proprietary restrictions will eventually lead to a loss of sales. Their computers didn't sell for this very same reason.

30% is a relatively low number for Kondansha. I'd suspect this number would be much larger if more of their library is pushed.

But the most disappointing part of the article is that Kodansha seems to be putting too much stock in Apple, rather than do it themselves so they can get their digital titles to people.

The_Q wrote:

Issues of censorship, and the almighty DRM. Both equally unappealing.

Keep in mind this is Apple we're talking about. It seems this company has decided to take the Nintendo approach to its application offerings.

Apple's been in the news lately for its draconian approach to its rules for developers to develop and offer applications.

I should point out Apple has every right to do this as it is their service. Unfortunately, Apple has yet to learn from its own history on how proprietary restrictions will eventually lead to a loss of sales. Their computers didn't sell for this very same reason.

30% is a relatively low number for Kondansha. I'd suspect this number would be much larger if more of their library is pushed.

But the most disappointing part of the article is that Kodansha seems to be putting too much stock in Apple, rather than do it themselves so they can get their digital titles to people.

[insert head banging against wall image here]

Big publishers are wary of changing a decades-old business model under which they set the retail prices and discourage discounting. This helps put a floor under their profits and, they argue, protects the country's culture.

E-book service providers are likely to charge less for buying electronic titles, as they do in the United States, and this could lower prices of paperbacks and dent profits.

"If we can't maintain paper book publishing, we are not going to cooperate," said Mitsuyoshi Hosojima, a director of the Electric Book Publishers Association of Japan, which was set up last month to address the e-book threat.


Kodansha Inc, Shogakkan Inc, Shueisha Inc, Japan's top three publishers, are leading members of the association.


E-book readers are not available in Japanese and there is virtually no market to speak of for electronic novels such as the now booming industry in the United States.


Amazon, whose Kindle book reader was the most-purchased gift in the company's history last Christmas season, said many Japanese are buying English e-books from its US Web site, indicating there would be strong demand of a Japanese device.