Last October, at their “Back to Mac” event, Apple announced the Mac App Store as being not only part of OS X 10.7 Lion, but also would be available in about “90 days,” which would have put it right around the end of January.
According to Apple news site, Appletell, an “inside source” has indicated that Steve Jobs is pushing for an early release, and we may see the Mac App Store as early as next Monday. This would bring it on line just in time for the Christmas holiday rush.
As of this morning, Apple has made no official announcement on any early release of the online store.
The Mac App Store, as described in October, is supposed to act much like the App Store for iTunes does – as a central place for Mac users to find and download apps and provide a place for independent developers to sell their software. They key difference from the iTunes App Store, though, is that applications that do NOT come from theApp Store can still be downloaded and installed manually.
I actually kind of like the idea of the Mac App Store with the simple caveat that Apple can NOT lock out other installation options, such as with iOS.
Ubuntu does this quite nicely with their “Software Center,” which contains a large amount of the software that you may want/need. However, you can still install software from other sources as well.
This is important in cases like doing a “nuke and pave” on a system. That will become a major hassle if you have to download all your apps… especially if you don’t have broadband access.
If implemented properly, the Mac App Store would act as a rather nice supplement to existing channels for freeware/shareware (e.g.; MacUpdate, VersionTracker, the OWC Shareware Collection). The update tracking in and of itself will be incredibly valuable for apps that don’t employ Sparkle for updates.
I like the potential a lot, but I think I’ll reserve final judgement until I see the final implementation (Lion).
Like the app store in general there will be impacts at all sorts of levels we have yet to see. Will competition be so wide open that a photoshop killer will be made that cost $30-$100 versus the $699 adobe charges?
I’m not saying it will happen, photoshop does a lot of things right, but the impact of the new marketplace from a more “trusted” download source will be a boon.
I’m betting it’s going to be an interesting ride.
Personally, I can’t wait to pay for Pac Man and Galaga yet again. I just love classic video games.
This will be great for novice users.
Would you prefer grandma getting her apps from the Apple app store, or from visiting any shady web site her Windows friends tell her to go to?