Mac App Store Reportedly Set to Launch at Noon Eastern Time Tomorrow

[FasterQuieter]

For those of us who know how our computer works, installing an app is very simple. My mother, on the other hand, simply cannot grasp what a 'disc image' is supposed to be. Every time I go round there her desktop is littered with the things. She is too scared to delete them. As Apple have always tried to cater to the clueless, this move is a good one for people like her.

 

[Bregalad]

And why were you downloading cracked apps with the lack of an app store ? The fact is, most people don't want to pay for the applications they pirate. This isn't going to change the fact you need to pay.

Agreed, but price is always a barrier. Early indications are that the Mac App Store will offer generally lower prices.

As others have mentioned the store will also offer the choice of purchasing just one app from a suite. That's akin to selling individual songs instead of just selling albums, something that has worked very well from the consumer perspective.

Another factor driving piracy is the receipt of files from other computer users, particularly those on Windows who assume everyone has whatever software they used to create the content.

Almost all the support calls I get from my parents are about email attachments or links that they can't view: Word docs, photos packaged as PowerPoint presentations, attachments that require Silverlight, photos in Picassa that require a Google ID, etc.

An easy to use, relatively safe and inexpensive place to get software would allow many people to solve their compatibility problems without resorting to piracy.

 

[Bregalad]

If I want to comply with licensing terms, I can't use Home and Student - due to my free lance, non-profit/church work, or when I take work home to get a project finished...

You've actually read a software licensing agreement? 😱

 

[Cougarcat]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Will I be able to use iTunes cards with the Mac App store?

Yes.

 

[pmasters]

I could honestly care less for an app store but would much rather Apple finally roll out a way to purchase ebooks (ibooks) on computers instead of forcing me to own a mobile device in order to get ibooks.

 

[Jodles]

For all those scoffing at the idea of Mac Apps being difficult to install now, let's just review the possible options:

1. Download the DMG, double-click to mount (if not auto-mounted). Drag app to Applications folder (sometimes via a provided alias, but usually not), then unmount Disk Image and delete DMG file. Ease of use: Good. Intuitiveness: Not so good (especially for users coming from Windows). I can't even count the number of times I've seen someone running Skype or Firefox from the disk image every time, and then they trash the dmg file at some point thinking it's just a useless extra, and suddenly their app doesn't work any more. It's not a bad method, but it doesn't make sense unless there's good instructions in the download (some developers do a good job here, many don't).

jW

I like those that ask upon launch if it should move itself to the Applications folder. More devs should implement that!🙂

 

[KeithJenner]

I could honestly care less for an app store but would much rather Apple finally roll out a way to purchase ebooks (ibooks) on computers instead of forcing me to own a mobile device in order to get ibooks.

I think it's quite likely that we will get a OS version of iBooks fairly soon. Just the sort of thing to put in the App Store.

 

[mytakeontech]

May be it's just me but I find Mac App store not so exciting...there is already an open App Store for Windows/Mac...download.com

 

[reticulate]

I find the idea of a unified application update/management interface to be the best part about all this - package managers are brilliant under Linux for exactly this reason.

For a good majority of Mac users who aren't using professional software this could end up being the only place they get apps. It might also sell a few more copies of iWork, especially since they're selling it piecemeal and a fair bit cheaper than Office.

Interesting times ahead, at any rate.

 

[Fraaaa]

1996 -- Apple Pippin

With all of Apple's recent home runs, it's sometimes easy to forget that the company isn't infallible -- everyone have their fair share of embarrassing flops, after all. And Pippin was one of Apple's.

For some inexplicable reason, Apple looked to enter the video game market in 1996, launching a collaboration with toy-maker Bandai that could play games and was also an inexpensive network computer. It was a device stuck in two minds, and as such did nothing particularly well. It was no surprise when consumers ignored Apple's device for the Nintendo 64 and the Sony PlayStation.

After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1984, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he has served as its CEO since 1997.

1983 - Lisa (as far as I know Jobs was ahead of Macintosh program and not Lisa)
1984 - Jobs resigned
1993 - Newton
1996 - Pippin
1997 - Jobs is back as Apple CEO

 

[ten-oak-druid]

Could you please pass me some of that herb you're smokin?

You obviously have no clue what CES is all about. And you obviously haven't followed the news today.

Sure

 

[zim]

No more serial numbers to take care of.
No more multiple licenses to take care of.
Purchase once, install on multiple computers.
No more "whats that site called again" or "whats that funky app called even when the name has nothing correlating to what it does".
No more nagging updates when it can auto update itself.

Exactly what I am looking forward to!

 

[jhiner]

Isn't there some requirement for an OS X 10.6 upgrade for this? Like 10.6.6?

 

[Tyler23]

Isn't there some requirement for an OS X 10.6 upgrade for this? Like 10.6.6?

We should be seeing that sometime tomorrow before the app store is officially released.

 

[KnightWRX]

Agreed, but price is always a barrier. Early indications are that the Mac App Store will offer generally lower prices.

No, early indication is that some iOS devs will retain their iOS App Store pricing for their ports to the Mac in the Mac App Store. You're not suddenly getting 4.99$ Office 2011 (which does not even qualify for the Mac App Store because of the policies in place) or 0.99$ iLife apps.

This is also indicative of the abundant spam that is about to hit the Mac App Store. Let's face it, most iOS paid apps could have been made as a website. Some are just information catalogs, something the web has been able to produce for years.

If the same thing hits the Mac App Store, it's going to seriously suck trying to find the good stuff. We don't need self contained apps that are trying to replace a website. Macs are full fledged computers with decent screen real-estate and a full browser. Just make a website.

No more "whats that site called again" or "whats that funky app called even when the name has nothing correlating to what it does"..

How does the Mac App Store solve this one ? I can still create a video player, I can still call it VLC and I can still use a Cone as an icon of all things.

There is no policy on the Mac App Store that forces an app to have a meaningful icon or name. And "What's that site called again ?" was solved around 15 years ago when browsers implemented bookmarks.

 

[iBug2]

How does the Mac App Store solve this one ? I can still create a video player, I can still call it VLC and I can still use a Cone as an icon of all things.

There is no policy on the Mac App Store that forces an app to have a meaningful icon or name. And "What's that site called again ?" was solved around 15 years ago when browsers implemented bookmarks.

This is true but the bookmark thing does not solve it, app store does. I don't think most people are creating bookmarks for the websites of every single app they are using. Sure, the option is there, but they don't do it. App store solves it by making it possible to keep track of apps without keeping bookmarks for them.

 

[swagi]

Sure

Geee....thx. Good stuff dude!

Beginning to like that stupid music in the MS CES-stream...😀

 

[KALLT]

No, early indication is that some iOS devs will retain their iOS App Store pricing for their ports to the Mac in the Mac App Store. You're not suddenly getting 4.99$ Office 2011 (which does not even qualify for the Mac App Store because of the policies in place) or 0.99$ iLife apps.

This is also indicative of the abundant spam that is about to hit the Mac App Store. Let's face it, most iOS paid apps could have been made as a website. Some are just information catalogs, something the web has been able to produce for years.

If the same thing hits the Mac App Store, it's going to seriously suck trying to find the good stuff. We don't need self contained apps that are trying to replace a website. Macs are full fledged computers with decent screen real-estate and a full browser. Just make a website.

Well, one developer so far, RealMac, seems to take this opportunity to lower prices of several applications either temporarily or permanently. I also expect that other developers will reduce their pricing, considering the more customers they may get through the App Store and the competition that may derive from it. However, I do not think that we will get to see many big applications with low prices – but who would honestly expect that?

I also do not agree with your view on many iOS apps. I actually enjoy your so called 'information catalogues' for the simple reason that they are often quicker and more efficient, in my opinion. But do you really expect to see many of those kind of applications on the Mac? I seriously doubt it.

 

[wovel]

Unfortunately, Microsoft will most likely keep selling Office as-is. That is, they will keep selling it as a package installer (with all office apps) through their own retail channels.

The reasons are simple:
A) They don't need the distribution, people who need office already know where to get it
B) They won't need to rewrite any of their code to comply with Apple's mac app store guidelines
C) And of course, the biggie, they won't need to give apple a commission

The same goes for Adobe and their suite of products. Unfortunately for us consumers, the "software giants" will continue doing their own thing, at least for now.

Pretty sure most retail markups on Office are at least 30%...

 

[KnightWRX]

This is true but the bookmark thing does not solve it, app store does. I don't think most people are creating bookmarks for the websites of every single app they are using. Sure, the option is there, but they don't do it. App store solves it by making it possible to keep track of adds without keeping bookmarks for them.

And if they can't remember a site, they're supposed to remember a generic icon/name more ? The cone is the video player ? 🙄

The App Store doesn't solve that particular problem, it just shoves it elsewhere.

I also do not agree with your view on many iOS apps. I actually enjoy your so called 'information catalogues' for the simple reason that they are often quicker and more efficient, in my opinion.

For the cell phone format, since screen real-estate is limited and full websites are not all that easy to view/navigate on the smaller touch screen.

For the Mac ? Useless junk to fill up the Application folder. Just use bookmarks in your browser instead or better yet, Google the information. I don't need an app to give me drink recipes or an app to find a Tim Horton's location or an app to browse items on Amazon, I can just go to the websites and do it and with a Mac, the experience will probably be better.

But do you really expect to see many of those kind of applications on the Mac? I seriously doubt it.

I hope not, but the initial article we got yesterday seemed to hint that some iOS devs are seeing a gold rush coming.

 

[KnightWRX]

double.

 

[lilcosco08]

After Steve announces the mac app store, he announces new MBPs with no optical drive and sandy bridge.

And then I wake up.

 

[paulypants]

i hope this will go down as apples biggest flops

Yea I'm so sure it will 🙄

 

[iBug2]

And if they can't remember a site, they're supposed to remember a generic icon/name more ? The cone is the video player ? 🙄

The App Store doesn't solve that particular problem, it just shoves it elsewhere.

Of course it does. You are not supposed to remember anything, any updates are already apparent on the app store app, so nobody needs to keep track of updates anymore. Do you check one by one updates for your iphone apps? No. iTunes says "N amount of updates available". Remembering what icon/name is for which app is only relevant for specific purposes, checking updates is one of the main reasons to remember.

 

[Žalgiris]

Of course it does. You are not supposed to remember anything, any updates are already apparent on the app store app, so nobody needs to keep track of updates anymore. Do you check one by one updates for your iphone apps? No. iTunes says "N amount of updates available". Remembering what icon/name is for which app is only relevant for specific purposes, checking updates is one of the main reasons to remember.

+1. All in one place, an integrated app on Mac OS X you can use to look for apps. Updates just like for iOS apps and no need to keep those pesky serial numbers. If RealMac is going App Store ...