“That’s because for them, with the rumored impending launch of the Mac App Store, the concept of tinkering against a midnight deadline is all too real,” Pullen writes. “This new year could launch a new era in desktop software, one which could bring the success of handheld app stores to personal computers.”
Pullen writes, “But until the store goes live, there will be a lot of questions about Apple’s [latest] foray into digital distribution—the biggest being how it will affect the price of software.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
It’s not just going to lower the price of software, but also development and marketing costs. No more designing and buying boxes, CDs. etc. for packaging, no shipping costs to stores, no old, outdated and unsold product to take back, no returns for bad discs, and much less needed for advertising.
This will actually be a boon to developers, especially the smaller shops.
And now where are the competitive leaders Dell, HP, ACER and Microsoft???????????????????????????
Well, we already know that Adobe won’t change their price policies, no matter what.
Speaking of which; how come there are, what, 7-8 professional 3D applications/suites (not counting all CAD/CAM apps) 4-5 pro Audio suites, 5-6 pro compositing suites, but only one damn professional photo editing suite? I just don’t understand why no one’s ready to go up against Adobe. BTW. Same for vector work.
Regarding lower prices on software, I don’t think that would be necessarily across the board just because the developer no longer has to pay to advertise the fact that a designer was hired to decorate a box to put a DVD disc loaded with the software in it.
If the developer deems their software is valued price (even if we think it is too much), for what you are getting even in digital format, then I doubt we’ll see a price drop. Which is fine if the extra money saved from the process of old goes back into development to further improve the software and add to the next revision.
Damn! My plans for a C3-based app have been found out!!!
the restrictions apple is putting in place pretty much mean that larger developers won’t participate, but it’s great for independent developers
Most software (of the kind that will be in the store) has long been distributed via download instead of in the stores. The stuff on store shelves will remain as that’s a point of purchase. So this isn’t really going to affect any of that.
What it will improve is that developers now have a much better distribution channel that provides reliable and trusted copy protection and payments, along with a feedback mechanism for the consumer.
I know I absolutely hate paying for shareware only to have problems with the licensing or the piracy protection cause problems. I also don’t like giving my credit card number out all over the place.
This also works especially well for me since I get tons of iTunes gift cards each year, so I’ll be buying a lot of software for free.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Down down, deeper and down. It’s going to affect the status quo.