The App Store for Macs

> Along with having the same look, feel, and features as its mobile counterpart, the Mac App Store will also have the same revenue-sharing model; 70% of revenue will go to developers, 30% of revenue will go to Apple. This got us thinking: will developers pay? Boy Genius Report asks a legitimate question about whether or not the Mac App Store will appeal to developers. The big factor they mention is exposure: Apple is basically giving you free advertising by listing you on the App Store. But as any iOS developer knows, that exposure is actually pretty limited, once there are hundreds of thousands of apps in the store. Apple features some apps, but they are few and far between. So if you want to succeed as a developer, you won’t be able to just list it on the Mac App Store and do nothing for marketing. You still need to hustle to get noticed.

There are many important factors left out of BGR’s story that I believe make the Mac App Store very appealing, though.

1. Piracy controls – it won’t be impossible to pirate Mac Store apps. But piracy in general will be greatly reduced compared to the current state of Mac Software. And you get it for free. You won’t need to build in authorization/serial numbers/locks of any kind. That saves tons of coding time. What you lose in paying Apple 30% you’ll more than make up for in people actually paying for your app.

2. No credit card fees/merchant accounts. Apple pays these for you.

3. Support. While you will be responsible for supporting the features of the app, you won’t need to support customers who have lost serial codes, had broken downloads, don’t know how to install, etc.

4. Bandwidth. You don’t pay to store your app somewhere, or for users to download it. Apple does.

5. Convenience for your customers, which leads to increased sales for you. Impulse buys are much more likely to happen when a user doesn’t need to enter a card number or shipping information. One-click purchasing is popular for a reason.

And the downside? Well, Apple will have to approve of your app. Which is not ideal for a lot of people, I understand. But that’s the price you pay for all of the above.

Will this appeal to all developers? Of course not. But it’s going to appeal to tons of iOS developers, so get ready for the competition. And it will appeal to most users, as well.

The bottom line is that the more successful this Mac App Store gets, the harder it’s going to be for small shareware developers to resist being placed in the store. Because users are going to end up doing ALL of their shopping there.