A busy day and a slew of new developments from Apple’s “Back to Mac” event earlier today, one of which was Steve Jobs announcing that Apple will launch a Mac App Store in 90 days. The Mac App Store will follow the iPhone App Store and will offer developers a 70/30 split on sales. As opposed to the iPhone App Store, however, the Mac App Store will merely be another option for developers to take advantage of and will not be the sole way for users to purchase and install software.
October 21st, 2010 at 1:09 pm
The Mac App Store is going to be huge.
This could be the catalyst that brings over some of those 100+ million iOS users that don’t already have a Mac. And, it could finally bring Mac into the gaming realm in a way that makes it viable to the mainstream in the same way iPod and iPad, Wii and DS have. And that, is also huge. It’s not huge in a Zelda or Halo hardcore gaming way (yet), but in order for that to happen you have to make it approachable by the masses first.
For me as a long time iOS user and a new Mac user, the one thing I found myself really saying “This has gotta be added to Mac”, was the App Store. It just makes so much sense. Now if we can start getting non-gaming iOS apps like ArtRage coming over to the Mac that would work great with a mouse, I’ll never look at my PC again.
Judging by Flight Control HD coming to the app store already (though I wonder how controls will work…), it appears there may be a chance of apps moving from the Mac to the iPad and vice-verca. I do want to know if Flight Control HD is essentially the same app as the iPad version, just running on a Mac. Will this app be universal for iOS and OSX under one purchase? That’s the biggest question on my mind right now.
All in all, I think this is huge. Core users may think this dilutes the OSX experience, and hardcore gamers may shun casual gaming, but lets face it – they’re niche compared to the audience this type of platform will best caters to. The nice part is that no one ‘has’ to use it. So no loss for those who don’t see value in it. I think its a win-win if Mac adoption goes up and it makes other companies take notice and better support Mac with their software releases.