Apple, yesterday released a PR document announcing that the Mac App Store will open Thursday, January 6. Utilizing a similar business model to the current App Store, (soon to be dubbed the iOS App Store?) the OS X application will surely change the ways in which programs are installed, updated, and managed on the Mac.
Just as Apple revolutionized the mobile industry with the opening of the original App Store in 2008, the Mac App Store is poised for the same levels of success. Navigating developer sites or Apple’s own downloads page for applications, will soon be a thing of the past. With a selection of paid and free apps in a wide variety of categories, the Mac App Store will make discovering and installing new apps easier than ever. As all transactions are tied to an Apple ID (the same one used for iTunes purchases) users will simply have to log in to begin downloading content.
Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of Apple’s new platform is its ability to effortlessly manage updates. If you have a large number of traditional 3rd party applications installed on your Mac, you know it can be a serious pain to keep them up-to-date. Similar to its iOS counterpart, the Mac App Store will alert you whenever updates become available, and allow you to easily install them. Steve Jobs offered the following on the new store:
“The App Store revolutionized mobile apps. We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making, finding, and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can’t wait to get started on January 6.”
Though the Mac App Store is an important innovation for several reasons, among them is the glimpse of the future it offers. With Apple slated to sell much of their traditionally disc-based software digitally, the new commerce platform may indicate the death of optical media is nigh. It is safe to assume that if other major developers begin to follow suit, we might not be seeing software sections in electronics stores for very much longer. Digital distribution is undoubtably the wave of the future.
If Apple can execute the Mac App Store to the same level of polish and success it has achieved on iOS, it will cause serious waves in the software industry and usher in a new era of content distribution and acquisition. Kiss those discs goodbye, my friends!
When the Mac App Store launches next year, it will be available as a free download through Software Update. Stay tuned and we’ll provide you will all of the details as we learn more.
Do you think the store has enough potential to mark the imminent death of physical media? Leave your comment on our blog and let us know!