First-Day Mac App Store Downloads Top 1 Million

[Small White Car]

Actually, I'm a little bit of both. Primarily photo manipulation as well as the categorizing/organizing aspect. But, for me, I think iPhoto takes care of my needs for the categorizing part just fine.

Cool. Then you should compare Pixelmator to Photoshop Express if you want any of that kind of manipulation in addition to that. They'd both probably be good choices and you can set one of them as an 'external editor' in iPhoto. This means that double-clicking a photo in iPhoto opens it in another app and when you re-save it the changes are saved back into iPhoto.

 

[cpfoto2005]

I really don't get this argument. What was with difficult with using Google and downloading an image file and dragging it to the Applications folder? Right. Nothing.

Grabbing an image file off the web is a very easy way to install an app - for those that are comfortable with it. Unfortunately, there are many people I have had in my classes who are totally confused with the whole "mounted image on the desktop" thing. The ease of use of the App Store wasn't made for those who post in a Mac forum.

 

[h1r0ll3r]

Cool. Then you should compare Pixelmator to Photoshop Express if you want any of that kind of manipulation in addition to that. They'd both probably be good choices and you can set one of them as an 'external editor' in iPhoto. This means that double-clicking a photo in iPhoto opens it in another app and when you re-save it the changes are saved back into iPhoto.

Thanks for the insight. I'll give that a look and see if fits the bill.

 

[Small White Car]

Thanks for the insight. I'll give that a look and see if fits the bill.

Oh, and check out 'Acorn' too. It's not on the Mac app store and I've never used it, but I know they're the other big one. Worth looking into.

 

[HLdan]

The Mac App store is the best thing ever invented....all I need some hardcore games!

This is what I'm wondering about. I'm wondering if Apple will be competing with Steam in terms of game content or will we just see "soccer mom" games on the MAS. I have no problem going to Steam for the big games, but will we see big games on the MAS or not? That remains to be seen.

 

[h1r0ll3r]

Oh, and check out 'Acorn' too. It's not on the Mac app store and I've never used it, but I know they're the other big one. Worth looking into.

Cool. Thanks.

 

[meatballs]

This is what I'm wondering about. I'm wondering if Apple will be competing with Steam in terms of game content or will we just see "soccer mom" games on the MAS. I have no problem going to Steam for the big games, but will we see big games on the MAS or not? That remains to be seen.

Disposable soccer mom games no doubt as that's where the easy and quick money is. Welcome to the iOSification of the Mac

 

[ApplesAOranges]

I haven´t bought/downloaded anything yet.

Please someone tell me, why would I need to buy Angry Bird twice? Doesn´t make sense to me.

Is there anything worthwhile? Everything slightly interesting seems way overpriced.

 

[Yamcha]

Yeah, I'm also wondering If we'll see any high quality games, a lot of these games may be good for the iphone or ipad, but I think there needs to be something better for the Macs on Mac app store..

 

[studio¹³¹]

the whole store seemed cool -- to me, nothing worth downloading yet. im not going to put any iOS style games on my mac, isnt that why i have an iphone / ipad?

 

[NickUK69]

I doubt that amounts to $120 of costs, which is the difference in the store and online cost yesterday. Maybe $2-3 in cost when done at a large scale.

No... Apparently Apple Stores NET around £50.

 

[KnightWRX]

Yeah, I'm also wondering If we'll see any high quality games, a lot of these games may be good for the iphone or ipad, but I think there needs to be something better for the Macs on Mac app store..

Just buy from Steam. That's a real online store for games. It's as convenient as the Mac App Store and gives much more leeway to the developpers to make complex games.

The Mac App Store guidelines are very limited.

 

[ApplesAOranges]

the whole store seemed cool -- to me, nothing worth downloading yet. im not going to put any iOS style games on my mac, isnt that why i have an iphone / ipad?

I agree. I see the potential in Mac App Store, but first when I saw Angry Birds and other iPhone/iPad apps in the charts, I was hitting my head against the wall!

I wanna see more of those "big boy´s apps", like Aperture 3. And more apps dedicated for just for OS X.

There should be a whole different section for all those iPhone/iPad apps. Who´s with me on this?

 

[guzhogi]

It's different. It's more acurate.

I'm not sure that I can qualify what's "better" or not. But that's not what I was trying to do.

EDIT: But, yeah, I guess it is "better" that someone forgot to lock the door. Because now they can go and lock it. That's better than learning that someone else has a key becaue then you have to change the lock which takes more effort than just locking a door. So if something is easier I suppose that is 'better.'

By "better," I meant was "bypassed" a better word to use than "hacked" in this situation. AppleInsider used the word "hacked" but whatever floats your boat. People seemed to know what I meant anyways.

 

[cocky jeremy]

I like it, but there are things i'd like to see improved.

1) Ability to upgrade previously installed apps via the app store.
2) Better detection of installed apps. (Installed outside of app store)
3) A "newly added" section, to find apps JUST approved.
4) Less restrictions on apps.
5) More apps. (Obvious, and will slowly happen)

 

[0815]

I like it, but there are things i'd like to see improved.

1) Ability to upgrade previously installed apps via the app store.
2) Better detection of installed apps. (Installed outside of app store)
3) A "newly added" section, to find apps JUST approved.
4) Less restrictions on apps.
5) More apps. (Obvious, and will slowly happen)

the upgrade is problematic since different licenses apply - apple can't just assume that the new MAS license overwrites the license the user agreed to. Better detection: I think that might be a problem of the software, not the MAS, if the software developer modified the info in plist for the application, the MAS can not detect if it is the same app or if it is a new versin in MAS it can't upgrade for reasons above.

The newly added section: definitely. I would like to see a major rework of the iOS AppStore and Mac AppStore to make thinks like this easier.

 

[0815]

the whole store seemed cool -- to me, nothing worth downloading yet. im not going to put any iOS style games on my mac, isnt that why i have an iphone / ipad?

agree. I was disappointed by too many iOS ports and too little 'real' Mac applications. Small time killer games I play on the iPad - the mac is for 'real' software and (hopefully soon more) real games. But I guess this is a way to reach non-smartphone users. Maybe they should add an category for 'iOS ports' so that we can ignore it.

 

[Manderby]

1 Million in the first day... not a very good result in my opinion.

Think of it: on the first day, many peope downloaded Applications because they knew, there was the AppStore coming and were eagerly awaiting it and of course downloading (not necessarily buying) something. But that was the first day and now, it's the turn for all other people.

As the Update is available via SoftwareUpdate, it takes a week (which is the default in SystemPreferences) until everybody at least sees the update. Then, when the installation is finally done (which many users choose to delay for several weeks), the only thing, the user may notice is the new icon in the dock. As the dock usually is packed full with other apps, most users will not notice for some more weeks, if ever. I mean, I just looked at my dock in detail as a test and found out that there still was iPhoto. I never used it on this computer but I forgot to remove it from the dock, so it was still there after 8 months.

And when people finally click on the AppStore icon, they find a store for strange things. There is no explanation what this is, people don't know what this thing is for. It looks like unwanted advertisement.

So, after one million downloads on day one, I do not expect an impressive increase in daily downloads. Maybe I'm wrong, who knows. Just my thoughts.

 

[HLdan]

I like it, but there are things i'd like to see improved.

1) Ability to upgrade previously installed apps via the app store.
2) Better detection of installed apps. (Installed outside of app store)
3) A "newly added" section, to find apps JUST approved.
4) Less restrictions on apps.
5) More apps. (Obvious, and will slowly happen)

I agree with almost everything on your list except number 4. What restrictions? We can install our apps on any Mac we use and re-download as often as needed.

 

[0815]

Grabbing an image file off the web is a very easy way to install an app - for those that are comfortable with it. Unfortunately, there are many people I have had in my classes who are totally confused with the whole "mounted image on the desktop" thing. The ease of use of the App Store wasn't made for those who post in a Mac forum.

Agree - fine for me and many other people. But I had a college of mine telling me that she downloaded firefox and used it, but told me that every time she logs in (after booting) that she has to reinstall it. I made her bring the laptop in. Installing for her was 'double clicking the dmg file' which took her forever to find and than the started FireFox on the mounted disk image by double clicking it. It did not come to her mind that she has to drag it into the Application folder. She did the same thing over the coming weeks with other applications, but I think by now she learned what needs to be done.

My point: Yes it is easy for most of us - but that does not mean it is easy and intuitive for everyone.

 

[KnightWRX]

I agree with almost everything on your list except number 4. What restrictions? We can install our apps on any Mac we use and re-download as often as needed.

The restrictions on which kind of apps can be on the Mac App Store. The current acceptance guidelines greatly limit the scope apps can have and even the apps that can be on there. A lot of great software isn't eligible to be on the Mac App Store.

 

[0815]

1 Million in the first day... not a very good result in my opinion.

Think of it: on the first day, many peope downloaded Applications because they knew, there was the AppStore coming and were eagerly awaiting it

Well - many of the people reading tech news new it. I would even say the majority of users did not know it comes out on that day. Many probably knew it comes but had not clue when and no interest to try it out right away. Only geeks and technical very interested people downloaded it the first thing in the morning (even though it was announced for 12pm) and tried it out. Than, those people probably already had the more interesting apps, except for the new ports from iOS which than were downloaded.

 

[shervieux]

That's strange because the icon appeared in my dock immediately after restarting the computer. Just to the right of the Finder icon. And it was bouncing up and down to show me that it existed! Sounds like you are missing something or some setting prevented this from happening like it should have.

In your preferences, you can turn off dock animation - suppose to save memory as it does not bounce when attention is needed. Good and bad...

 

[Lesser Evets]

If they offered all the $199 express programs at $79, I'd get a couple in an instant.

 

[MrWillie]

I wonder how many of these were accidental like mine was. I launched the App Store, logged in and then clicked on a product to get info. My cursor was just a hair to the right too far and immediately purchased a $79 App that I'm now in the process of trying to get a refund for. Why isn't this like the iPhone App Store? On the iPhone you are required to enter your password even on Free Updates! At least give us the option of setting a 1-click purchase. Bad design and a surprise from Apple.

Why were you logged in if you didn't intend to buy any apps...

But yes, I agree. There needs to be a way out before download/charges begin.

I really like the app store, just waiting for more content! Perhaps this is where that patent for desktop ads will be put to use...

I also wish there was an option to not have the apps place directly onto the dock by default, am I missing this option or is my dock doomed to clutter?

The apps I purchased were on the dock initially, but after I ran and then quit the app, they were only in the application folder.

But there's practically no way for most free apps to make money. Bob's Hex Editor doesn't have a titan like Facebook or Google behind it. I don't know how many people will be willing to pay $99 a year to distribute their freeware to you. With the iPhone there's usually an upsell or ads.

People develop free software for several reasons:
1) Because they can.
2) For the challage of it.
3) To pad their resumes.
Let's elaborate on #3. You go on a job in view and they ask about your work. You can't just hand over the source code of a custom in house application you developed. You can hand the the source code to Open Office and tell them that you worked on flow charts or whatever. They can also check the developer boards and see how you interacted with others.

I really can't see Apple clamping down that much on OS X, I mean I can understand the need for it on iOS but it just won't work with a computer Operating System.

Quit looking at tablets as not being computers. They are. Is there a NEED for it with OSX ? Probably not. Is it a good way of exposing the end user to different software packages ? It sure is.

BUT MAKE DAMN SURE THAT THE MAS DOES NOT BECOME THE ONLY WAY TO INSTALL APPLICATIONS.