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which became the famous Five Forces 2 framework that helps one assess industry attractiveness.<br />
However when this framework is applied to comics, almost everything seems unattractive.<br />
There are constantly new comics being published (New Entrants with low entry barriers), an existing<br />
huge collection of comics (Competitors), and lots of substitute products such as games and movies if<br />
comics are regarded as a form of entertainment (Substitute Products). Bargaining power of suppliers,<br />
in this case, artists vs. publishers, is weak, unless the artist is a celebrity artist whose work is highly<br />
sought after. Bargaining power of buyers depends on the popularity of the work and should be<br />
considered strong as comics are not a “need” but a “want” product. If the Five Forces framework is<br />
to be believed, one can see why artists are struggling. To evaluate the digital comics industry, I had<br />
designed a new framework to analyze external factors that would affect the business environment<br />
(Exhibit 2-2).<br />
Exhibit 2-2: Digital Comics Industry Structural Environment<br />
Product<br />
Development:<br />
• Hardware<br />
• Software<br />
• Contents<br />
Influences<br />
Target<br />
Market<br />
Behaviour<br />
Impacts<br />
Market<br />
Trends<br />
To figure out what kind of digital comics would become popular in the future (i.e. Market<br />
Trends), there is a need to understand the target market’s behavior changes that results from<br />
development in hardware, software and contents for digital comics.<br />
2.3.1. Hardware Development for reading Digital Comics<br />
Before Amazon Kindle and iPad, there was the Sony reader introduced in Jan 2006. It could<br />
load PDF, mp3 and image files but the display was limited to digital black ink. The device was<br />
2 Porter, Michael E.. "The Structural Analysis of Industries." Competitive strategy: techniques for<br />
analyzing industries and competitors. 1980. Reprint. New York: Free Press, 2004. 3-33.<br />
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