Mac App Store Very Promising But With Restrictions

[heisetax]

No App Store For Me1

So, if I'm an app developer, and I had the chance to have someone else handle the distribution and all payment processing, I'd jump at 30%.

Oh yeah, I'd also have my application available to 500,000,000 iTunes users. Complain all you like, but tons of successful developers are going to be scrambling to get on this.

I purchased an iPod Touch a little over a year ago. I probably downloaded 50-60+ free apps but only 2 paid for spreadsheet programs. I would rather deal straight with the software developer so that I can get updates as soon as they are available by them. For this & other reasons I have not used my iPod Touch for well over9 months now. Then that got me to purchase an Android phone from Sprint. The App Store has moved me away from being all Apple. I never liked the Apple I or II but have had a Mac since my first Mac 128 in 1984.

The apps may be available but they have too many restrictions on them. Thus No Sale for me. I'll be one of those that will continue to use the direct route to the software developer when possible & use different suppliers the rest of the time.

 

[zacman]

Let's get real. Within 3 years Apple will block Apps from other sources than the AppStore.

And it's actually very nice to have DRM in ALL software: people won't be able to sell their old software on ebay anymore. Most companies lose lots of money because users don't buy the latest version but buy an old version on ebay. In the future that's won't be able on the Mac.

Of course you also won't be able to sell your Mac with software preinstalled because the software is linked to your iTunes account for activation. Even better for Apple.

 

[waloshin]

I'm just wondering what Apple will invent next, now that they've invented full screen mode and a package manager.

Not to burst your bubble ,but the Canonical team had a Ubuntu Store before Apple did.

This is the 1st step.

2nd step: All software can be only be installed via this store.

Then your computer is 100% controlled by Apple. You can not install ANYTHING that they dont want you to. Your basically leasing a computer.

The end of all software piracy.

Then Microsoft copies it and we are doomed.

No were not have you ever heard of something called Linux?

 

[Tha Professor]

For all the people that complain that 30% is too much. Don't forget that they do marketing for you as well... How many simple mac users know how to google find an app that suits their immediate needs? How many of them just browse the developers sites to find a cool useful app? Very little. With an app store, they will just go through the categories and find things they never thought would be possible. Like my dad on his iPhone... He would never just look for software on his Mac... yet on his iPhone he is always like "So what cool app is new out there" browsing the appstore... So the 30% is fair I think. unless you think that appstore won't help you get 1.4285 times more customers than your tiny website lost in the web....

 

[macsmurf]

Not to burst your bubble ,but the Canonical team had a Ubuntu Store before Apple did.

No were not have you ever heard of something called Linux?

Well color me surprised. Next you'll be telling me that Windows had full screen mode for years?

(I was being sarcastic. And I've been running Linux for 10 years or so)

 

[macsmurf]

For all the people that complain that 30% is too much. Don't forget that they do marketing for you as well... How many simple mac users know how to google find an app that suits their immediate needs? How many of them just browse the developers sites to find a cool useful app? Very little. With an app store, they will just go through the categories and find things they never thought would be possible. Like my dad on his iPhone... He would never just look for software on his Mac... yet on his iPhone he is always like "So what cool app is new out there" browsing the appstore... So the 30% is fair I think. unless you think that appstore won't help you get 1.4285 times more customers than your tiny website lost in the web....

Maybe, maybe not. That remains to be seen.

However, I don't consider 30% to be too much. I believe Steam has a cut of about the same size.

 

[Denarius]

The more "less technically inclined" people buying applications, the lower the prices for us.

Although Apple's 30% revenue is a pretty big handicap to start with. The phrase 'money for old rope' springs to mind. Honestly, what a business model: set up a digital shop, sell the products of other people's hard work and get 30% of the revenue for no work beyond the initial site development and a little bit of picking and choosing of what you allow to be in there.

Once it's well enough established, I imagine they'll be modifying the OS to only allow applications that come from the Mac App store.

 

[MorphingDragon]

Not to burst your bubble ,but the Canonical team had a Ubuntu Store before Apple did.

No were not have you ever heard of something called Linux?

Your sarcasm detectors fail. Also Lindows did what Ubuntu is doing now years ago.

 

[foiden]

I don't think they can imagine centralizing the whole Mac application market. The computer market, having a free non-centralized market, is way too established to reverse. Centralizing it all, and forcing all Mac apps (and updates) to go through approval would be a nightmare for long established developers who like to do fast routine updates. (Though oddly enough, DoodleJump seems to get timely updates like no tomorrow. Wonder how he does it?)

This is just something for the ease of distribution and market of new products. Apple is happy with steam, it seems, and other distribution ideas. However, the App Store wouldn't be a bad idea to jumpstart more developers on it. Right now, checking up on Mac Apps is pretty dismal, in comparison to other systems. Creating a better, simple mac app store, is needed. It's certainly better than the one on the Apple web site. Though I would feel that for big company multi-platform releases capable of publishing their own digital distribution, they'll keep to regular distribution channels. Apple should consider the missteps of Sony's PSN service, in a way. Be smart about the platform, and when it is a smart choice to use the Mac App Store or not.

 

[billyjoegibsonx]

I love the idea of a Mac App store I can't wait till its up and running, thank goodness they are bringing it out before 10.7 Lion. All I ask for is to keep my freedom to be able to go onto a website and download a program. I like the idea of Mac App store to easily search for programs, but I wouldn't like it if the only programs I could buy are from the app store I don't care about it being like this on the iPad/iPhone/iPod touch...but not my laptop thanks very much

Cant wait.

 

[macsmurf]

Although Apple's 30% revenue is a pretty big handicap to start with. The phrase 'money for old rope' springs to mind. Honestly, what a business model: set up a digital shop, sell the products of other people's hard work and get 30% of the revenue for no work beyond the initial site development and a little bit of picking and choosing of what you allow to be in there.

Once it's well enough established, I imagine they'll be modifying the OS to only allow applications that come from the Mac App store.

If they did that major software companies such as Microsoft, Adobe, and Autodesk would probably leave the platform.

 

[RyanR.]

Finally! Software sections of retail stores have finally died!

Well in my town it was impossible to find Software or "software made for mac" until this year

 

[tdmurphy]

These are good initial thoughts about the store from a developer: http://blog.alfredapp.com/2010/10/21/the-mac-app-store-first-thoughts/

 

[garyd]

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[garyd]

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This is a very bad development indeed. This smells of the thin edge of the wedge of a closed ecosystem. I don't like this one bit. Hopefully Apple will not try to exercise more control down the road of non-appstore apps. Personally if I were a developer I'd be very very worried by these developments.

This completely absurd notion comes from the same panicked mindset that permeates the tech illiterate media of both traditional and modern varieties. Let's think this through to its logical conclusion... If that were to happen, how would anyone develop new apps for iOS? With an expensive $10k development workstation like you used to have to buy for console development? If that were in the pipeline, why did Apple just drop their more expensive Apple Developer Connection in favor of the new $100/yr Mac Developer Program that's priced the same as their iOS Developer Program?

Does anyone seriously believe the Xcode IDE & all its supporting tools & libraries will get ported to an iOS workstation that doesn't have a Terminal or Finder? How will they develop these new workstations? On secret "old school" OS X workstations hidden deep in the Apple bunkers in Cupertino, surrounded by barbed wire next to the concentration camps where they've imprisoned all the enemy operatives that tried to sell Snow Leopard on the black market (eBay & Craiglist)...?

That's as absurd as suggesting that Google is going to do away with their multi platform dev kit in favor of a special Google branded ChromeOS or Android workstation so the only way anyone can develop Android apps is from within their own silo of products. Where do these ideas come from? Are there special Microsoft FUD operatives lurking on the tech message boards & playing funkspiel in order to **** with people & scare them in to the waiting arms of Steve Ballmer?

 

[Bakerman]

iTunes stuff isn't DRM'ed, it was but currently most content isn't.

DRM is included with the Mac App Store; developers do not need to implement a parallel copy protection scheme.

 

[RyanR.]

To all the people who don't like this Mac App Store:

1. You don't HAVE to use it. (For Now)
2. Apple 30% cut is a pretty good deal even for the big guy's. (quicken comes to mind) One reason it puts "good" top selling software on top so less money/time needed for marketing. Second reason no (or less) boxes to SHIP and store on shelves. This is also environmentally more friendly.
3. More impulsive buying. Good for APPLE and DEV. not so much for us. Apple knows this is working 17+/- BILLION APPs downloaded to date.
4. I would be more inclined to buy an app from the app store because I feel it's been tested and approved by Apple. I know for sure it's not Malware or Phishing for anything.

In the end we knew this was coming. Steve said it on the Quarterly call the day before "closed is better". It provides the user with a better experience and I don't have to be a "Genius" to figure it out.

 

[Surreal]

is it REALLY that nonsensical to bandy about the notion that the Mac App Store couple possibly eventually become as restrictive as the iOS app store THAT IT IS MODELED AFTER? we aren't saying it is certain, btu there is an ever approaching possibility that support for apps outside of the app store system will dwindle.

I am about to release an app for the phone, I like most of what it provides. I still am apprehensive about the mac app store.

 

[irun5k]

This kind of knee-jerk, nonsense reaction is incredibly frustrating. People will be scared of Apple dictating their breakfast cereal before long.

You really think Apple are going to "make it more and more inconvenient to install apps other ways?" Seriously??

I, for one, am glad there are skeptics among us and there is historical precedence to worry about what large companies might do when they become powerful.

Voicing these concerns early can't hurt- it lets Apple and the rest of the industry know what our concerns are. They don't always listen of course, but still- better to speak up than not speak up.

 

[garyd]

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iTunes stuff isn't DRM'ed, it was but currently most content isn't.

DRM is included with the Mac App Store; developers do not need to implement a parallel copy protection scheme.

Though FairPlay is available to developers, nothing in the dev terms requires it be used. Also, though music in the iTunes Store is no longer restricted by DRM, all video content still is.

 

[garyd]

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is it REALLY that nonsensical to bandy about the notion that the Mac App Store couple possibly eventually become as restrictive as the iOS app store THAT IT IS MODELED AFTER? we aren't saying it is certain, btu there is an ever approaching possibility that support for apps outside of the app store system will dwindle.

I am about to release an app for the phone, I like most of what it provides. I still am apprehensive about the mac app store.

I wonder how many Microsoft moles are lurking here to spread their FUD. I remember years ago when Microsoft was trying to hire Linux experts to attend trade shows, evangelize Microsoft products, & basically spy on public UNIX events. But why? So they could call in air raids from the Redmond Luftwaffe when traditional skullduggery & thuggery were ineffectual? I'm sure that somewhere in the years since then that they've turned their efforts on anyone else that encroaches on their DMZ.

 

[Bernard SG]

I, for one, am glad there are skeptics among us and there is historical precedence to worry about what large companies might do when they become powerful.

Voicing these concerns early can't hurt- it lets Apple and the rest of the industry know what our concerns are. They don't always listen of course, but still- better to speak up than not speak up.

The problem with all this FUD is that anyone having a minimal understanding of Mac technologies knows that it would be a technical challenge nearly impossible to solve even for Apple to change things in a way that people can't install applications outside the app-store.
Just think about this: developers to develop need to test, that is build executables with Xcode. If Apple wants to lock the OS in the way the paranoid imagine, it will mean that developers need to have a different version of the OS than the one the general public has. That's already very complicated... and very easy to crack because some of said developers will inevitably leak the power-version of the OS to simple users.
It's possible with iOS devices because you can't develop iOS applications on the device themselves, you need a Mac; but App for Macs are developed on Macs. See what I mean?
Moreover, all mac users already have the development tools in their system's DVD's. That's Apple's approach of things. It's just ridiculously dumb to imagine just one second that at some point they will make a radical turnaround against that open vision of the Mac platform.
Get real, seriously.

 

[knightlie]

I, for one, am glad there are skeptics among us and there is historical precedence to worry about what large companies might do when they become powerful.

Voicing these concerns early can't hurt- it lets Apple and the rest of the industry know what our concerns are. They don't always listen of course, but still- better to speak up than not speak up.

Nothing wrong with voicing concerns, but those concerns need to be rational and based in reality if they are to be taken seriously. Some people on here act as if Steve Jobs comes in to their bedroom every morning and tells them what socks to put on.

The idea that Apple will modify OSX so that users can't install their own apps is laughable.

Edit: Bernard SG said the same thing much better than I did.

 

[Stella]

These are good initial thoughts about the store from a developer: http://blog.alfredapp.com/2010/10/21/the-mac-app-store-first-thoughts/

The 'race to the bottom' like what has occurred on iOS Store was my first thoughts for a Mac AppStore. This could damage OSX development / Mac AppStore quite a bit.

Software development is not cheap and and I'll take two examples - RapidWeaver, 1Password cannot be produced when potential consumers start saying "$20 for that - are you crazy, too expensive". Software developers want to be paid a fair wage, this can't happen if the product price is too low.

A Mac AppStore is good for the N00bs and everyone generally, but the race to the bottom for pricing certainly isn't.

 

[knightlie]

is it REALLY that nonsensical to bandy about the notion that the Mac App Store couple possibly eventually become as restrictive as the iOS app store THAT IT IS MODELED AFTER? we aren't saying it is certain, btu there is an ever approaching possibility that support for apps outside of the app store system will dwindle.

I am about to release an app for the phone, I like most of what it provides. I still am apprehensive about the mac app store.

Mac OS is a UNIX certified OS. It's a FULL OPERATING SYSTEM, not some front end for a phone or an iPod. Apple would have to strip down or modify the OS in order to prevent users just copying apps onto their machines and running them, dropping their much-heralded UNIX certification in the process and remove any number of OS functions that software relies upon. They would alienate vast numbers of their user base, and dump the Macs market share down the toilet overnight.

They. Won't. Do. This.