Webomatica on the new Mac App Store

> Mean­while, on the Mac end, I think I’ve bought less than five pro­grams all year, mostly due to a long, bor­ing dance between down­load and payment: > > 1. Have a need, decide to find an app. I usu­ally [start here](http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/), but also do a Google Search. > 2. After find­ing sev­eral apps, search for reviews and rat­ings about that app before decid­ing which to download. > 3. Down­load the app. Fig­ure out how this app is installed, ide­ally drag­ging and drop­ping the app to the Appli­ca­tions folder, but might also need to run an installer and type in a password. > 4. Then the hoops of “trial soft­ware” vs. “paid app” begin. Usu­ally there’s a demo mode, or trial period with hob­bled functionality. If in demo mode, reminders to pay might start pop­ping up. Sometimes the demo mode reminders get annoy­ing, and I decide to find a free ver­sion of the same soft­ware — return to step 1. > 5. Demo mode expires. I want to pay. Have to fig­ure out how the devel­oper han­dles this; some­times must cre­ate an account on their web­site, Pay­Pal, credit card, hand over my email to cre­ate a license key. Often this is too much of a has­sle; I decide to find a free ver­sion; return to step 1. > 6. If I decide to delete the soft­ware, have to fig­ure out the best way to do that, toss in the trash, run an installer, look for all the asso­ci­ated files, etc. > 7. If I keep the soft­ware, have to deal with updates (pop ups when­ever you launch the pro­gram or annoy­ing peri­odic reminders), the dif­fer­ent ways devel­op­ers han­dle them (some down­load in the app, some want to be paid for each update), and installs on mul­ti­ple machines (fam­ily packs, license keys). As usual, my friend [Webomatica](http://www.webomatica.com/wordpress/2010/10/21/os-x-app-store-vacuum-hose-i-the-wallet/ "Webomatica") nails it. The Mac App Store is all about the users. It doesn’t matter if some indie Mac developers complain, or if the big-name developers, like Adobe and Microsoft, don’t sell through the App Store. What matters is that users are going to find the convenience addictive, and they will immediately look at software downloaded any other way as barbaric.

Take a look at those steps he laid out above. Then compare it to 1) Click the buy button. 2) there is no step 2.

Flocks of iOS developers are now already planning on jumping on the Mac bandwagon, creating more competition. I know my friends at BombingBrain are already considering it, as we discussed it mere minutes after the presentation was over yesterday. This means a boatload more apps will be available for the Mac than we have now. So even if a few disgruntled Mac shareware developers decide to give it up (and I seriously hope they don’t), it’ll still be a net gain in developer interest for Apple.