At least one developer is claiming that the
Mac App Store is headed toward irrelevance. Here’s a look at what this means
for Mac users.
Apple’s one-stop shop for Mac apps is
becoming more restrictive for the developers who sell apps there.
In a July 26 blog post titled “The Mac App
Store’s future of irrelevance,” Insta-paper developer Marco Arment asked, “How
many good apps will be pulled from the App Store before Apple cares?” He noted:
“My confidence in the App Store, as a customer, has evaporated” since he can no
longer be sure that an app he buys will remain available in the store. “The Mac
App Store is in significant danger of becoming an irrelevant, low-traffic flea
market where buyers rarely venture for serious purchases,” he concluded.
App
Store in Peril Apple’s restrictions may cause the overall quality of Mac apps
to decline
In his post, Arment referred to the most
common Mac App Store concern: its sandboxing requirement, which can limit what
functionality developers may include in their apps. By demanding that
developers sandbox their apps, Apple can ensure that apps won’t pole around
where they don’t belong on users’ Macs. But that limitation also has the
potential to force apps to undergo significant changes.
Arment believes that because the Mac App
Store is bad for developers, the overall quality of apps in it will decrease,
which will be bad for everyone.
The case against the Mac App Store
The Mac App Store’s restrictions have some
precedent, since they have been part of the iOS App Store since day one. But
“on the Mac,” Arment tells Macrworld, “the App Store policies are being
retrofit-ted into a well-established environment that they’re fairly
incompatible with.”
That’s not to say that the Mac App Store
launched without any restrictions. From the start, it lacked upgrade-pricing
support, limited root access, and banned apps that tried to tweak elements of
the Mac’s interface or accessed private APIs (application programming interfaces).
But Arment isn’t the only developer who
thinks the Mac App Store is troubled: Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba told
us that he agrees with Arment’s contention. Many apps, Kafasis says,
“including our own, have never entered the store due to the onerous
restrictions in place from day one. Castrating our apps is simply not
appealing.”
Kafasis recognizes the benefits of the Mac
App Store: “[It] made it easy for developers to sell software, without a lot of
overhead.” But, he adds, “the obstacles to selling software have been shrinking
for years… selling directly is easier than it’s even been.” Kafasis says that
Rogue Amorba is working to sandbox Piezo, but that doing so may be impossible.
“If we’re unable to do that, we’ll have little choice but to shift Piezo from
the Mac App Store to direct sales exclusively.”
In defense of the Mac App Store
One common response to Arment’s arguments
is that they apply only to hard-core users who run the powerful apps most
likely to get bitten by restrictions. In a follow-up post, Arment countered by
suggesting that because geeks are evangelists and thought leaders, their
influence reaches typical Mac users too.
Not all developers regard the situation
negatively. James Thomson of TLA Systems sells apps in the Mac and iOS stores,
and the Mac App Store continues to work out well for him: “We’ve had PCalc in
the Mac App Store since it opened, and we’ve seen noticeably higher sales from
the App Store than through other channels. So, from a visibility and
ease-of-pur-chase point of view, it would seem that [the store is] a success.”
That said, Thomson notes that TLA is “in
the process of submitting our first update with sandboxing switched on, and
we’ve had to remove an admittedly very minor feature” to do so. “It’s not ideal,
but we don’t really have much of a choice if we want to sell in the store,” he
says.
Thomson doesn’t necessarily agree with
Arment’s suggestion that customers will increasingly shop for apps elsewhere:
“Even though you can see a lot of folk talking about it within our small
sphere, I don’t think we’re the average consumer by any means. Most people will
just buy through the store because they are used to the experience from iOS,
and it’s right there in front of them.”
How the Problem Affects Mac Users
While Arment is quick to clarify that he
never intended to suggest that users would “complerely abandon the Mac App
Store,” he adds: “The problem is that it’ll be relegated mostly to simple,
cheap, often subpar apps, and for the few good apps that remain, users will
mistrust the Mac App Store as a stable place to buy them and expect future
upgrades.” Without significant changes, the Mac App Store “will just never
become good enough that Apple could require that Macs only run App Store
software.”
Additional
Restrictions? – Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper feature defaults to allow apps from
“identified developers” but Apple may change that in the future
iOS famously runs only those third-party
apps that uses buy from its App Store. Does Apple hope to make Macs run the
same way? The default option in Mountain Lion’s new Gatekeeper feature limits
Macs to running Mac App Store apps and those from “identified developers” who
have registered (for $99) with Apple but whose titles aren’t subject to Mac App
Store restrictions. Could a more restrictive Mac App Store setting become the
new default – or the only option?
Arment’s guess: “I don’t think it will
happen for a while, but I do think that [limiting Macs to App Store apps is]
Apple’s eventual goal. And if it does happen, no matter how far in the future
that is, I bet we’ll all scream that it’s too soon.”
Thomson’s take: “Yes, I can completely see
Apple locking things down more in future. But I would expect them to first
completely remove the ability to run nonsigned code. …We’re a good couple of
years away from only allowing App Store apps, I’d say – probably not in 10.9,
but after that it wouldn’t surprise me.”
Kafasis’s opinion: “It would be bad for
developers who don’t fit into the Mac App Store, certainly, and that’s a
growing number. It could be bad for users, who would no longer have access to a
wide range of very useful products. …Ultimately, I believe it would be very bad
for Apple as well, as their now-thriving Mac platform would be damaged.”
What Mac Users Should Do
If you don’t mind Apple’s increasingly
strict rules for apps, keep shopping on the Mac App Store. But take pause. A
developer of an app you love might release a new version with a new price tag.
An app you love may be forced to strip out features. Or the developers of an
app you love may find that they can’t keep it in the Mac App Store anymore.
While the Mac App Store remains a fine
place to buy certain titles today, the issues are real, and Apple thus far has
displayed its characteristic determination to stick to its current plan. If
you’re worried, you can start to buy apps directly from developers instead. And
you can share your feedback with Apple.
It’s definitely too soon to panic. But it’s
not too soon to be concerned.
