The Mac App Store isn't for today's Mac developers
Apple's recently announced App Store for the Mac is a Really Big Deal™, for reasons I'll get to in a moment. But a lot of existing Mac developers have pointed out major issues or unknowns that need to be addressed:
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's move follows a signal planted back in March 2010, when the Mac Developer license fell to $99/year alongside reports an App Store was coming — the storefront is now confirmed, and Marco.org calls it 'a Really Big Deal' for the platform while cataloguing what he says are major issues and unknowns raised by existing Mac developers about whether it fits how they ship software today.
First-order effects
- Existing Mac developers selling directly through their own sites now face a choice between a new curated channel with unresolved rules and their current distribution model, with the article arguing the store as announced isn't built for them.
Second-order effects
- If Apple applies iOS App Store economics — price expectations and review gatekeeping — to the Mac, developers who stay outside the store will be pressured on both discovery and pricing against apps sold at App Store prices inside it.
Third-order effects
- The episode is an early instance of Apple exporting its mobile SDK governance model to the desktop, making the gap between Apple's store rules and long-standing Mac development practices a recurring structural tension rather than a one-off complaint.
The trend: Apple is carrying its iOS-era app curation and review model onto the Mac, and the friction with established desktop developers is emerging as the defining question of that transition.