Why Comixology Sucks (Short Version)

This latest changelog for DC's Comixology-based iOS app says a lot about why Comixology sucks and should be abandoned by publishers.

What's New in Version 1.1

We apologize for the inconvenience, but with this update necessary changes to book storage will remove comics already on your device. Books will NOT need to be re-purchased and re-downloads will be free. To retrieve your comics, please login to your account & navigate to "My Comics". If you have any issues please contact us at info@comixology.com or on our website at http://comixology.com/contact.

iPad / iPhone - Added new loading graphic.
iPad / iPhone - Application now supports backround processing.
iPad / iPhone - Memory Improvements & Crash Fixes across the board.
iPad / iPhone - Improved Background Store Update's.
iPad / iPhone - Ability to download comics without an account.
iPad / iPhone - Added Restore Purchases from iTunes.

iPhone - Application now supports Retina Display.
iPhone - Added All Comics View in "My Comics".
iPhone - Fixed bug with incorrect spacing in the navigation bar after exiting certain views.
iPhone - Added swipe to delete function for downloaded comics.

For those who don't follow this stuff closely, let me clarify things a bit. The fact that this update requires users to re-download all their books is a pain in the ass, but I'd give them that one for free; it's the kind of thing that careful programmers do their best to avoid, but maybe there are extenuating circumstances that haven't been disclosed. The real problems show up the list of changes. To wit:

• "Now supports 'backround' processing." BackGround processing (the ability to keep your place in an app while you switch in and out of another one) was added to iOS (the iPhone and iPad operating system) in version 4.0, which was released June 21, 2010. The most popular apps in the App Store supported background processing the same day that 4.0 came out, and every other half-way decent app added support within a 2 or 3 months. Out of the 61 apps installed on my iPhone, the only ones that didn't add support for background processing long ago are the ones built by Comixology. Why the hell did it take 13 months for this to make it the DC app? They didn't do much better at updating their own Comixology-branded app, "Comics," which only got background processing in version 1.7.4, released March 20, 2011. That's a nine month delay for a release that was broken on first-gen iPhones and iPod Touches. Even the fixed version released a few days later was excruciatingly slow and buggy as hell, and it's still the current release! 
•  "Application now supports Retina Display." Same deal as with background processing. "Retina Display" is Apple's name for the iPhone 4's screen resolution. It's one of the phone's major selling points, and not supporting it makes your app look like trash. You would think that an app whose raison d'etre is to serve as a platform for reading comics would want to quickly take advantage of such a feature, but not Comixology. Like background processing, most apps added support for Retina Display either before or very shortly after the iPhone 4 was released. What has Comixology been doing all this time, designing a "new loading graphic"?!

Hey publishers, it's time to start paying attention to what Comixology is, or more aptly, isn't doing. If these guys were only putting out their own, small-time mobile apps, they might be able to get away with this kind of sloppy performance. But Comixology is the digital face of the world's largest comics publishers, and as such they should be expected to produce top-notch, world-class apps. Sadly, that's far from being the case.

DC, Marvel, Dynamite, Top Cow: do yourselves a favor and hire a couple of staff programmers who have a decent resume. Comixology isn't getting the job done.