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http://www.macnn.com/articles/10/11/17/more.details.emerge.regarding.mac.app.store/

Developer explains limitations of Mac App Store

updated 09:15 pm EST, Wed November 17, 2010

 

More details emerge regarding Mac App Store


Kevin Walzer of Code by Kevin has sent an open letter to registered users of the applications he has developed, describing some of the changes the new Mac App Store will impose. The open letter is a request for feedback on the changes, along with opinions regarding Walzer's choice to develop for the store or not. From the customer's standpoint there will be no more 'try before you buy' offers, as demos will not be allowed. There will be no upgrade path outside of the App Store -- customers will have to pay full price for a new version of an app on the Mac App Store, even though they own an older version of the software bought outside the App Store.

For developers, the new store means changing code 'under the hood' to meet App Store guidelines. Walzer poses questions asking if upgrade paths and demo opportunities are important to the customer, and also asks how often the customer is likely to buy apps from the new Mac App Store.

Language in the new App Store has been called too vague by developers. The Mac App Store is expected to launch around the Christmas holiday, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised a launch within 90 days at the October 20 Back to the Mac event.




by MacNN Staff

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 software, developer, Apple, Mac App Store

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Comments

  1. trinko

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2000

    +6
    11/17, 09:33pm | report spam | (2 replies) Reply |

    App store may be evil!!!!!!

    If I have to buy full price versions of all of the apps I currently have bought-- like graphicconverter, BBEdit, etc--I will hate the app store with a passion. That's because there's no reason that the app store couldn't be designed to support coupons and vendors could use your current registration number as a coupon to get a cheaper update. Lack of demos is completely unacceptable, even the big vendors provide demos these days. Why can't demos be like lite versions on the iOS app store but with time limitations rather than feature limitations. Also why can't you sell say BBEdit full--for new purchasers--BBEdit update--which will only work if you feed it a registration number from the previous version of BBEdit--and BBEdit demo which times out after 30 days?

  1. ATPTourFan

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2003

    +4
    11/17, 09:55pm | report spam | (2 replies) Reply |

    Will the Mac App Store...

    ...be mandatory? I can't imagine we'd ever get to the point where all Mac OS applications would be forced to deliver via this new method.

    I pray I'm right.

  1. cartoonspin

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Sep 2003

    +1
    11/17, 10:09pm | report spam | Reply |

    I'll never change!

    It should run the way I want it to run! There is no reason it couldn't work the way I think it should. Wow!

  1. kooBi

    Junior Member

    Joined: May 2001

    -4
    11/17, 10:21pm | report spam | Reply |

    The Mac App Store will have to change

    Talk about onerous terms, this is like something out of Microsoft. The inability to buy upgrade versions (something that Apple itself offers right now) earns customer loyalty, and the ability to download a trial version initially is, obviously, essential. I can't see these features being a part of the final App Store, they are too illogical. In fact I would have expected that one or both of these features would be a mandatory requirement for software developers!

  1. Tharsman

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 2010

    +16
    11/17, 10:39pm | report spam | Reply |

    Ehhh..... guys, just look at the iPhone/iPad

    Anyone that looks at the iPhone app store for long enough knows the alternatives.

    Although Apple does not allow "demos", it does allow you to add things like "Lite" versions that serve the same purpose.

    You can also create applications that have most features (like save features) turned off until you do an in-app purchase to activate all features. It's actually rather common in the iPad productivity section (although not as common as I wish it was.)

    As far as "Upgrade Paths", you can change the mentality and just ship the update "free for all" but keeping key new features locked behind a new in-app purchase. Many games go this way, adding new levels in an "expansion" fee instead of selling a separate app.

    This actually opens the doors for something that was impossible in the current "upgrade" world: you can keep the core app updated for everyone, patching bugs and holes for all your consumers (happy consumers spend more money) as there is no "depreciated" version that cant realistically be patched, it's all just one codebase, and if you fix a bug, every one of your consumers will have that bug fixed.

    Some may argue that their application update is not introducing new features, but to that I'd argue: "then it's not a new version, it's an attempt to charge for patches."

  1. Arkanjil

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 2010

    +7
    11/17, 10:57pm | report spam | Reply |

    Um

    Can't a 'free' or "lite' version set out with the full app meet the requirements of demos? The upgrade path is tricky, but I doubt it's an issue that won't be addressed, if enough such apps are registered. Time will tell....

  1. CarlRJ

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2010

    +5
    11/17, 11:23pm | report spam | Reply |

    The Mac App Store will *never* be mandatory...

    ...mark my words. People keep looking at this from the wrong side, saying "what if Apple forces all software to go through the App Store and locks everything down! That would be terrible! Boo! Hiss!"

    That would, indeed, be terrible. It would also be terrible if all new Macs came with a cat shredder attachment. But neither is going to happen.

    Apple has a very healthy Mac ecosystem going on right now. They also have a iPhone App store that is doing FABULOUS business and making "everybody" happy (users get shiny apps easily from a trustworthy source, developers can sell apps while concentrating on software development instead of store management, developers and Apple get $$$, and Apple sells more iPhones/iPads/iPod touches, getting still more $$$).

    There are a lot of people out there who have iPhones and cheerfully buy software from the App Store, who also have aging PCs at home, and like the App Store buying experience much more than what they've dealt with on the PC side of things, and could be persuaded to "go Mac" the next time they buy a computer. The Mac App Store will give these people a chance to buy desktop apps as easily and readily as they have bought apps for their iPhones. It will make using a Mac and buying software appear (to them) as simple and friendly as using an iPhone, and that's all some people need/want.

    Along the way, Apple will get a lot of iPhone developers writing Mac software for the first time, as a nice bonus.

    The iPod generated a bit of a halo effect, people thinking "gee, I hate my PC, I wonder if a Mac would be as easy to use as my iPod is." The Mac App store seeks to harness a similar halo effect, encouraging all those people cheerfully using iPhones to make their next desktop (or laptop) computer a Mac.

    But they're *not* looking to dump all the current users, trading them for the *potential* of iPhone/iPad/AppStore converts to Mac. I'm quite sure they'd rather have *both* camps, the casual "it's an appliance" users, who occasionally buy things from the App Store, along with the current crop of dedicated Mac users.

    We saw a different version of this when Mac OS X first arrived -- I'm one of the Unix command-line-junkie converts, I couldn't imagine using a Mac without having Terminal open, yet the traditional Mac users likely use the GUI exclusively and many never touch Terminal. Apple accomodates both groups well, and doesn't try to force one group to be like the other. I don't think they'll make that mistake with the new crop of iPhone-to-Mac converts.

    Apple isn't out for world domination (see Microsoft in the 90's for that), they're looking to build a great end-to-end experience that will make users happy, so those users will buy more Apple products. Think carrot, not stick.

  1. graxspoo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 2008

    0
    11/18, 12:15am | report spam | Reply |

    iCatShread is coming

    Carl, I think you're being overly optimistic. As a developer for the Mac platform, I've spent the last decade chasing after Apple's changing APIs and requirements, and I must say my legs are getting tired. The Mac as a platform for creative professionals is going away. Apple has lost interest. The economics of why are simple: for every one creative professional, there must be 100 or more "casual appliance" users.

    Jobs likes things without wires, without k****, without user serviceable parts. He WANTS to lock things down, make them impenetrable, and present a clean and simple face to the consumer. This is his dream. The Mac is messy with its exposed file system, drivers, multiple windows, mouse driven interface. Yuck. It's so last decade. He sees the future of computing, and it's the iPad. The less control us sneaky developers have, and the more they can shoehorn us into some little box (that sells for 99 cents) the happier Jobs and Apple are, because the fewer headaches casual users are likely to have. One simple model for software discovery, purchase, installation and updating, sounds like a dream worth putting a few insignificant developers out of business. Those that do not adapt, will be left behind.

    They are a hardware company. They don't care about making money from software, and their pricing and way of doing business reflects this. Now they want software developers to adopt their business model. What's wrong with this picture?

    Even if Apple doesn't want to put non-App-store developers out of business, this will likely be the eventual outcome. There will be intense market pressure to get your app into the app-store, and there will be intense downward pressure on prices. Will there be any software in the app store for more than $99? Probably not. $20 will probably be "expensive" for the app store. Since Apple doesn't need to make money from software, it can sell its software offerings at break-even, or at a loss. Yet, at the same time if you are not in the app store you run the risk of not being found. Damned if you do, damned if you don't... Maybe I'll just switch to writing Windows apps. At least Microsoft understands that software developers need to make a living.

  1. dliup

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2006

    +8
    11/18, 12:41am | report spam | Reply |

    Clueless developer

    Plenty of Lite versions exist for iOS.

  1. trinko

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2000

    -2
    11/18, 01:10am | report spam | Reply |

    What Steve Jobs said

    I sent Jobs an email about this and I got a reply. He said they're going to do it their way. See below. I do concur that if Apple doesn't do anything to convince developers to only use the Mac App store that'd be fine. But think about it with the Mac App store vendors wouldn't have to maintain their own web sales sites. That alone might be enough to get vendors to go Mac App store only--something Apple wouldn't mind since it gives Apple a bigger cut of the Apple software dollars.

    I'm not sure how the prohibitions on demos and charging reduced upgrade fees are defined. If developers can release lite or time limited versions that's fine. While I've seen lite versions on iTunes I haven't seen time limited ones. Further in app upgrades would be away around the problem but once again I don't know why Apple would prohibit lower upgrade costs or demos in the first place.

    As an end user I just want to make sure that software vendors provide a path, either in the Mac App store or outside of it, for reduced cost for upgrades and the ability to try before you buy.

    Anyway here's the email i sent and the reply I got. Note that I can't verify that this came from Steve Jobs only that the email address was sjobs@apple.com.

    Subject: Re: Mac App Store doesn't sound Green
    From: Steve Jobs
    Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 19:29:01 -0800
    To: trinko

    Mac users will be free to buy their apps from whatever channel and in whatever form they want. As for our Mac App Store, we will be offering it our way.

    Sent from my iPhone

    On Nov 17, 2010, at 6:47 PM, trinko wrote:

    > According to one source the new Mac App store won't allow upgrades from licenses purchased outside of the store and it won't allow demo's.
    >
    > That's not green in the current Mac software ecosystem because it forces an unharmonious change in how we Mac users buy software. Unlike the iOS store that was there effectively from the beginning of the iOS software ecosystem the Mac App store is like a building being added to a rain forest--or fevered swamp depending on your opinion. It has to blend in in order to avoid unpleasant disruptions and potential ecological collapse.
    >
    > If the source is correct let me suggest a possible solution that should not require extra functionality to be implemented or tested by Apple.
    >
    > Let vendors provide 3 versions of their software--I'll use BBEdit as an example
    > 1) BBEdit: a full new license at full price
    > 2) BBEdit Loyal: Same as BBEdit but it costs less and requires a serial number from a previous version of BBEdit to work, all code changes are in BBEdit not the App store.
    > 3) BBEdit demo: Similar to the lite versions seen on the iOS store but with full functionality and a vendor supplied time out function that disables it after x days at which point the user would have to buy the BBEdit version. Depending on the way in app purchases work it might be viable to allow the demo version to be upgraded to the BBEdit version via an in app purchase
    >
    > It seems to me that this approach would be green in that it would not create a sudden cost knee in the software vendor end user relationship as well as preserving the experience that Mac users have come to expect from software vendors--demos and cheap upgrades. It also wouldn't require any changes to the Mac App store code base since each of the three products would look like a separate app to the store. Of course the presentation could be enhanced by enhancing the Mac App store code base to treat the 3 versions as a bundle of some sort so that they are displayed on the same page but that wouldn't be necessary especially at launch.
    >
    > Even though I've been a Mac user since 1984 I'd be mighty mad at Apple if I had to pay more the next time I had to upgrade my software and if I couldn't try before I buy for apps that cost >99 cents.

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