Apple Encourages Developers to Get Their Mac Apps Notarized

[szw-mapple fan]

The Mac App Store is deader than a dead zombie. Why would any developer pay Apple 30% when they can just have people buy a license from their website/store and keep all the money?

Because it offer app hosting and easy payment for the customer, as well as discoverability in a marketplace that come pre-installed with every Mac. The store is not as vibrant as it’s iOS counterpart, but I’ve personally discovered quite a a few good tools there that I otherwise wouldn’t have.

 

[H2SO4]

I still don't get this attitude. Sell your app at Best Buy and see how much they charge you to do that. Most retail items are priced at 50-100% of what they get them for.

Good luck opening your own store to sell you app, or creating your own website and getting anywhere near the same traffic and sales.

Owning a storefront is a BIG thing. There aren't that many. Nobody gives people free or near free access to their stores. It costs a lot of money. Spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and open an app store yourself, and charge people 1%. See how that works for you.

Whether the maths stacks up the same or not, (in any one particular case), that's not even close to being the same thing. You don't necessarily pay a fee for the privilege of selling in somebodys store.

 

[dukebound85]

I still don't get this attitude. Sell your app at Best Buy and see how much they charge you to do that. Most retail items are priced at 50-100% of what they get them for.

Good luck opening your own store to sell you app, or creating your own website and getting anywhere near the same traffic and sales.

Owning a storefront is a BIG thing. There aren't that many. Nobody gives people free or near free access to their stores. It costs a lot of money. Spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and open an app store yourself, and charge people 1%. See how that works for you.

That’s not the argument here. The argument is that Apple may require Apple approval even if NOT HOSTED in the MAS

 

[ikir]

The Mac App Store is deader than a dead zombie. Why would any developer pay Apple 30% when they can just have people buy a license from their website/store and keep all the money?

Most dev I know so that. You have many advantages as developer (payments, server...) and as a costumer (license, any install as you want, easy update...)

 

[Spock]

You misread the article. Currently you can have a signed ID or not. Now there is an option for signed ID developers which is notarization. In future, these signed ID developers will have to notarize their apps. It doesn’t affect non-signed apps.

I have not misread anything, I’m talking about the future of MacOS being a walled garden like iOS, IN THE FUTURE. These seem like the first steps, that’s all I’m saying.

 

[Applefanben]

I was not as specific as I should have been, if future versions of MacOS do not allow applications to be installed on my Mac at all unless they are signed by Apple, it will not make me a happy Mac user.

I agree; however, I do believe that is quickly becoming the future for computing. Mac, Windows, iOS (already here) are heading toward a store only approach. It will create a better user experience for the average person.

It will require developers to develop for the stores or they will have to go Linux and miss out on all of the average consumer world.

I hope I’m wrong. However, it’s what appears to be the theme which is why it’s not unrealistic to expect Mac to move to ARM in 2020.

Time will tell!

 

[Kabeyun]

I meant developers can't add any app they want to the App Store. As I mentioned, the iStats app in the App Store is limited compared to the full version they sell on their own site.

That’s fine. You can still buy it from Bjango. I did. You can get what you want. If you don’t like tha App Store offerings, go to the dev. If the dev doesn’t have it either... it doesn’t exist.

 

[lec0rsaire]

The Mac App Store is deader than a dead zombie. Why would any developer pay Apple 30% when they can just have people buy a license from their website/store and keep all the money?

Because I think Apple is about to make sure they get their 30% unless you don’t want to offer a macOS version!

 

[shareef777]

That’s fine. You can still buy it from Bjango. I did. You can get what you want. If you don’t like tha App Store offerings, go to the dev. If the dev doesn’t have it either... it doesn’t exist.

Which is what I said. For the 30% fee they charge developers are better off making their own site to sell their product. The App Store doesn’t gain them anything other then a 30% decrease in revenue.!

 

[Futurix]

The Mac App Store is deader than a dead zombie. Why would any developer pay Apple 30% when they can just have people buy a license from their website/store and keep all the money?

Websites are not free. Add to that cost of hosting downloads, need for a decent separate update system, payment processing fees, higher marketing costs... for many small developers Mac App Store is worth it.

 

[bbeagle]

Whether the maths stacks up the same or not, (in any one particular case), that's not even close to being the same thing. You don't necessarily pay a fee for the privilege of selling in somebodys store.

How is it different?

Say I print a $59.99 price tag on my software I sell to Best Buy. Does Best Buy pay $59.99 to buy it from me? No. They pay like $30-$40 wholesale. That's exactly the same as a 33-50% fee.

 

[drewyboy]

I was not as specific as I should have been, if future versions of MacOS do not allow applications to be installed on my Mac at all unless they are signed by Apple, it will not make me a happy Mac user.

If this ever happens, I’d pack it in and call it quits. Me recommending Apple would go from neutral to actively warning folks of them.

I just couldn’t recommend a desktop/laptop that doesn’t allow you to install whatever you want.

 

[harriska2]

Because in the next few years it will be required.

That is what I’m afraid of.

 

[drewyboy]

Because it offer app hosting and easy payment for the customer, as well as discoverability in a marketplace that come pre-installed with every Mac. The store is not as vibrant as it’s iOS counterpart, but I’ve personally discovered quite a a few good tools there that I otherwise wouldn’t have.

Exact opposite for me. Nothing but crap and so much for “discoverability” unless you juice your reviews or your a large company that doesn’t need apples marketing in the first place.

 

[strayts]

Actual Notary Public here. Calling this "notarization" is so dumb. Just call it Verified! Sigh.

 

[zorinlynx]

Unfortunately Apple seems to be a slow match to totally locking down macOS like iOS is locked down. This is my primary fear of the Mac line switching to ARM-based CPUs. I bet that change would come bundled with a version of macOS that can only run apps downloaded through the app store and no web downloads period.

I have some lingering fear of this as well, but I doubt it will happen.

Unlike iOS, MacOS is a development platform. Any attempt at locking it down like iOS will severely hobble it as a dev platform. In addition to that, it will greatly piss off developers, who by and large are geeks who like to have control over their hardware.

These changes seem geared to keep regular people from being able to easily run any old thing they download, getting infected with malware in the process.

I really, really hope I'm not wrong!

 

[fairuz]

The Mac App Store is deader than a dead zombie. Why would any developer pay Apple 30% when they can just have people buy a license from their website/store and keep all the money?

"The notarization process is designed for non Mac App Store apps and is not required for those that are submitted to the Mac App Store."

This is good and important. There have been many cases of sites being hacked and giving out fake downloads that contain malware. They sometimes ask users to compare checksums, but let's face it, nobody does that. Also in some cases the place showing the checksum could be hacked.

We need verification for native apps. I'm a hater of web apps (cause they're slow af and rely on hacks like JavaScript), and they're gaining popularity in part because it's currently too sketchy to install native apps.
[doublepost=1539994255][/doublepost]

I was not as specific as I should have been, if future versions of MacOS do not allow applications to be installed on my Mac at all unless they are signed by Apple, it will not make me a happy Mac user.

This has been the rumor for a long time, and it's unlikely to ever happen.
[doublepost=1539994330][/doublepost]

Actual Notary Public here. Calling this "notarization" is so dumb. Just call it Verified! Sigh.

I agree the name just adds confusion.

 

[nt5672]

Will this be the only check Apple does? I don't want the same restrictions on non-store Apps as they have on App Store apps.

For now, but when it comes to protecting the children, Apple seems to be willing to go all out, so who knows what is next.

 

[code-m]

Why? For the same reason retaiers will pay $200 per square foot for pace in a shopping mall. The are buying customers they would otherwise never get.

If you owned shoe store you could save a lot of money by renting space some place cheaper but then how many peoplr would walk in from of your store. At the Mall you have customers who did not even know about your company and foubd out about you because there were there for some other reason. The App Store is very much like that.

Only opened the MAS to update the OS or just SW updates in general. If there was an option to disable the store component I am all for it. Would love the same option for iOS.

Don’t really go to malls other than to get some exercise during the winter months.

Prefer getting my SW directly from the developer who sets the price and does not pay anyone a commission other than their business operating cost.

Apple should reduce their commission to 5-10% max to attract more developers to MAS, a shame.
[doublepost=1540015145][/doublepost]

For now, but when it comes to protecting the children, Apple seems to be willing to go all out, so who knows what is next.

Companies are protecting society to live in a bubble, yet the selfie crowd are willing to go to great length to injury or kill themselves to utilize those amazeball phone cameras.

 

[sirexilor]

As someone mentioned before, this really sounds like Apple will publish ARM Macs in near future with iOS-like locked OS, with xcode. So devs will be from beginning in a locked OS.

Sounds like Apple really really is trying it best getting out from being "pro".
[doublepost=1540022937][/doublepost]As someone mentioned before, this really sounds like Apple will publish ARM Macs in near future with iOS-like locked OS, with xcode. So devs will be from beginning in a locked OS.

Sounds like Apple really really is trying it best getting out from being "pro".

 

[netdudeuk]

The Mac App Store is deader than a dead zombie. Why would any developer pay Apple 30% when they can just have people buy a license from their website/store and keep all the money?

When I bought my MBP in January, one of the first things that I did was to go to the App Store. Very disappointed to see the lack of apps in there. I think that part of the limited range is down to the fact that the browser is plenty good enough for many things.

 

[4492865]

App Store will probably get a boost once iOS apps start running on the mac...

 

[unplugme71]

The Mac App Store is deader than a dead zombie. Why would any developer pay Apple 30% when they can just have people buy a license from their website/store and keep all the money?

Visibility = Sales
[doublepost=1540047565][/doublepost]

Whether the maths stacks up the same or not, (in any one particular case), that's not even close to being the same thing. You don't necessarily pay a fee for the privilege of selling in somebodys store.

No, you wholesale it at 50% or whatever your suggested retail price is.

So you still take a cut selling to Best Buy.

If TurboTax is sold on TurboTax for $39.99, it’s sold for $18.99 to Staples who sells it for $39.99. Selling at Staples while gives less net profit, actually boosts their sales because people will buy from a retailer of their choice.

 

[fairuz]

Visibility = Sales

I might be wrong, but I don't think you get much visibility on MAS. Devs are going to either take it or leave it, and I don't think they're taking it.

 

[alexgowers]

Gate keeper is enough apple! Please we want to be able to install weird ish on our macs. Real attacks come from email spam, website and browser flaws and hell of a lot of users just plain entering their details on funky websites and has zero zero to do with apps!

apple keep claiming this is for app security but it's a step closer to apple tax store 2.0! This is blatantly a money grabbing move designed to kill independent development and nothing to do with securing osx. I hate this So So Much