Apple is on a mission to cram the iPad’s and iPhone’s successes into the Mac, beginning with a brand-new software store serving Mac apps. That may be both good and bad.
The Mac App Store will create a new channel for Mac users to find software easily, and it will make it easier for programmers to reach a large audience. But some developers worry about Apple’s future road map, and the potential the App Store has to turn the Mac platform into a more closed, controlled environment subject entirely to Apple’s whims.
“I wonder when Apple will stop shipping Safari,” said Mike Beltzner, director of the Firefox browser at the Mozilla foundation. “It’s obvious already from [Wednesday's] keynote that they’re looking to bypass the web.”
Apple in a press conference Wednesday announced that the next-generation Mac operating system, Mac OS X Lion, will launch with a Mac App Store similar to the iOS App Store serving its mobile devices. Steve Jobs said the company was planning to take lessons from mobile and weave their benefits into the Mac platform.
When the Mac app store opens, users will be able to automatically install apps and seamlessly run updates whenever they’re available, just like on the iPhone. Apps downloaded through the Mac app store will load in a quick-launch tool, similar to the springboard interface of the iPhone and iPad.
Most Apple developers seem thrilled about the opportunity to sell their wares through an online Mac store, but some have dissenting views. Here are the pros and cons of a Mac app store, gathered from brief conversations with programmers.
More money, more innovation
The Mac app store presents an opportunity for programmers to reach an audience of 50 million Mac customers (for comparison, that’s about half the size of the audience of iOS users). That could amount to hot sales for Mac apps and a few lucky success stories, like the few we reported on when the iOS App Store was young.
Just as the App Store did with the iPhone, we can expect a wave of new programmers opting to make apps for the Mac. As a result, customers will get thousands of Mac apps enabling Mac computers to do things we never even thought about.
“I think it can breathe some new life into Mac software,” said John Casasanta, partner of the MacHeist software bundle.
App discoverability
Even though the idea of a Mac app store is to create a one-stop-shop for all your third-party software, it won’t necessarily make it easy to find apps.
In the case of the iOS App Store, discoverability is still a problem. The list of best-selling apps is the easiest way to find apps, but otherwise the App Store doesn’t provide an adequate method to sift through the other 300,000 apps. You have to do as much research to find the right software as you would searching the web for third-party apps.
If the Mac app store accumulates a large number of apps (and it sounds like it will), customers will likely face the same paradox of choice.
A race to the bottom or top?
The iOS App Store currently serves about 300,000 apps, but many agree that the majority of offerings in the store are sub-par, and are priced at 99 cents or less. Many are even free, and offer minimal value that corresponds to their cheap price.
Casasanta wonders if we’ll see a similar “race to the bottom” with the Mac app store. However, he said he was more optimistic about the Mac app store, because the Mac developer community long ago established standards for quality. As a result, he thinks Mac users will see a plethora of quality software.
Cheaper and greener software
Ideally, because you won’t be paying for packaging or shipping of Mac apps purchased through the store, pricing on software should be cheaper than what we see today. And obviously, digital distribution means you won’t need to toss any boxes or plastic into the recycling bin.
Is there any other choice for programmers?
Developers’ websites and independent stores will have a tough time competing with a centralized Mac App Store. That means any Mac programmer who wants to make serious money may have to participate in the Mac App Store, says Justin Williams, a Mac developer who quit coding for the iPhone because of the App Store’s controversial history.
“Even though I don’t like the concept of the app store, I have to be there,” Williams said. “It’s such a large audience that you’re putting me in front of that it’d be stupid not to.”
Apple’s way or the highway
Apple is likely to enforce the same policies regulating the types of apps that are and aren’t allowed in the Mac App Store, just as it does the iOS App Store. That means the horde of Mac programmers selling apps in the Mac App Store are subject to the same strict rules, like no porn, no apps that defame famous people, and others.
Mac app developers will also likely face the same headaches as iOS developers, such as lengthy wait times until an app goes live, or questionable rejections, Williams said. However, he hopes Apple will apply lessons it learned from the App Store to the Mac App Store to mitigate these potential issues.
Closing the web?
Right now the fundamental difference between the Mac and the iPad is that the former can run any Mac-compatible program copied onto the computer, whereas the iPad is only authorized to run apps downloaded through the App Store. In other words, the Mac is more open than the iPad.
Some developers, such as Mozilla’s Beltzner, fear that Apple will continue pushing the iOS regime harder if the Mac App store becomes extremely successful. That could lead to an iPad-like app environment where the Mac only runs apps downloaded through the App Store, and not from a website, for example.
Williams shares this concern.
“I can see them getting to the point in [OS X version] 10.8 or 10.9 where they say we have to lock [the Mac] up entirely,” Williams said.
Casasanta, however, doesn’t see that happening.
“It makes absolutely no sense because, unlike the App Store for iOS, the Mac App Store isn’t the only way to distribute your apps and will likely never be the only way,” he said.
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