The Manga and iPad Romance
Between Japan’s love-at-first-sight fascination with Apple Inc.’s iPad and its long-term affair with manga, it seems only natural sparks would begin to fly when you put the two together.
E-book downloads of anime titles onto the tablet reader sprinted past the number of reads downloaded onto its sister gadget the iPhone in July, according to eBook Initiative Japan Co., a Tokyo-based e-book distribution website. Consumers downloaded twice as many digital mangas onto the iPad via the online distributor last month, according to the site. The company doesn’t provide the exact number of downloads that entails but company president Hitoshi Koide said it reaches “tens of thousands”, a feat considering the iPad has only been in Japan since the end of May.
But don’t cry for the smartphone just yet –- the number of downloads on the iPhone tripled in July compared to six months earlier. There are currently 28,000 titles available to download on the website, which only launched its e-book store for the iPad on July 1.
