“Sure, you can download many Mac apps from a variety of developer websites, but then you’re also sharing a lot of key details about your identity, home and billing information,” Maxcer writes. “In an age where cybercriminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated, I like to try to reduce my exposure. Some of these innovative developers are just dudes in a garage, and when push comes to shove — say, their brother gets in too deep with some gambling debts made in the shady areas of Vegas — what are they going to do? Hold an online fire sale to drum up some quick cash?”
Maxcer writes, “According to the latest rumors, iWork ’09 is slipping out of stock, paving the way for iWork ’11. And wouldn’t Apple like to deliver iWork ’11 with its brand new Mac App Store? I think so, and I’m due for an iWork upgrade. So how might this benefit me? Instant download gratification and no shipping charges. I’m in.”
Still, there’s a lot more to like about Apple’s deceptively awesome Mac App Store:
1. Easy App Discovery From a Trusted Source
2. New Easy Installation
3. New Licensing Terms
4. Easy Update Discovery
5. Big Crowd Reviews
Full article, which covers all five points above, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Johnny Bravo” for the heads up.]
I wish Apple had a trusted FileMaker developers forum. Anyone know a trustworthy FileMaker developer?
You can find one here…
http://developer.filemaker.com/search/
@Yimmie: Thank you.
For anyone addicted to checking Versiontracker, a Mac App Store will be another outlet.
I love the idea of a Mac app store, but I take exception with the shoddy reporting of the story.
Most small developers like the ones they are describing here use a system like Paypal or Kagi to process their payments. It’s not like they have a clipboard sitting there with all these credit card numbers written on them. That’s just really sloppy writing.
I wonder what agreements/limitations will be in place at the Mac App Store so Apple doesn’t hurt their new-found relationship with Valve and their Steam service.
Looking forward to laughing at the Microsoft Windows App Store. Come on, you know they’re gonna do it…
——RM
Screw this dude for implying mac developers would jeopardize their customers. As a group, they are far and away the most responsive and hardest working coders on any platform.
Developers, developers, developers. Guaranteed if the Mac App Store is successful, Microsoft will follow up with one almost immediately, most likely saying their Windows App Store had been in development for years and it’s merely coincidental it came a few months later than Apple’s. The Wintard fanbois will probably hate the idea of a Windows App Store, because they’re such a superior bunch that don’t need anything simplified. They’re rather continue to keep searching around the internet for their own stuff.
Low-tech Mac users should love the idea of a centralized software store. The explosion of developers on the Mac platform will drive sales of Mac software and hardware to an all-time high. The Mac App Store is sure to be a success even if it doesn’t match the iOS App Store. If games don’t take off on the Mac after the Mac App Store opens, they never will.
I agree that this could lead to a greater interest in developing for the Mac. As I’ve said before, I almost never buy applications for my Mac, and each time MDN posts one of those “Ten applications every Mac user must have” lists, I haven’t heard of any of them. Having a Mac app store will help expose me to games, productivity applications, and tools I wouldn’t otherwise have discovered. And I would gladly pay a little for new games for my kids to get them off the daggone Flash game sites. One of those actually ruined my old iMac 24″.
@Brian: I’m pretty sure that the game developers who use Steam will distribute to multiple platforms and would not want to hurt their relationship with Steam.
On the other hand, I think that mac app store will serve as a great place for Mac-Only game developers to sell their games… and Hopefully, we will be seeing more of those in 2011.
Automated updates is the key for me.
Ronel Multimedia did a great job for us. ronelmm.com
I wonder if it will provide the same DRM and Digital Signing that iOS apps have. Presumable, this would make the store a “curated” source for apps and if a malevolent app got into the store Apple could revoke the certificate thus killing the app.
This may be the future…
Comparing the quality of Mac apps to Winblows apps is like comparing apples to a steaming pile of corn-riddled crap.
One Last Issue: Have not seen this mentioned before, so here goes.
I currently have 2 dozen 3rd party applications & almost 2 dozen utilities installed on just my MacBook Pro, let alone my Mac Minis.
Are we Mac users going to be able to “migrate” our existing licenses to the MacApp Store.
I DO NOT want to pay for these apps all over again, just to get Mac App Store service.
I hope Apple has an answer for this as it concerns virtually all existing Mac users.
Pardon me if this has been answered somewhere else and I haven’t heard about it.
Uncle Al; In addition to non-relevant sneaky advertising comments…
Tell your son at Ronelmm.com to take off the snooping by the website so Little Snitch doesn’t warn me something funny is going on.
I NEVER visit a website where Little Snitch pops up before I get to the home page…EVER.
I wonder what the effect on pricing will be.
It may force devs to drop prices, but I think it will also increase the volume of sales. So it could be a win/win.
I think 2011 will be a milestone for Mac. There is a huge consumer base very happy with their iphone, apple tv, ipad, ipod touch that will tip them over to abandon their Hp or Dell on their next purchase.
And a little hype from Steve of the summer roll out for Lion is not going to hurt.
But how are they possibly going to try to describe Adobe’s upgrade path? Because if you bought InDesign CS4 as part of the Design package that means you got buy the whole Design package to upgrade it, meaning you gotta get Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS 5, and spend $500 rather than just upgrading INDesign CS5 for $200. Im exhauste typing this and Adobe can suck it. Hate that company.
“Some of these innovative developers are just dudes in a garage”, you mean like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak?