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Kevin Walzer, software developer.

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Thoughts on the App Store

So Apple is bringing its iOS app store mode model to OS X. Apple approves all submissions to the store, handles all sales and billing, and takes a 30% cut. The major difference between the Mac App Store and iOS App Store is that the Mac App Store won't be the only game in town--developers are not required to sell their products through Apple for them to be installed and run on the Mac.

I'll say this for Apple: they don't sit still. It seems that every couple of years they bring out another disruptive change that profoundly alters the landscape for Mac developers. In 2005 it was the transition from PPC to Intel. In 2007 it was the deprecation of the Carbon frameworks. And now this year, it's the Mac App Store.

I'm still pondering the implications of the App Store model for my own products. After looking at the App Store guidelines, I don't see anything that would make it impossible for my programs to be included (like using Java as the programming language). I'm very glad that Tk now has a Cocoa foundation, as a Carbon foundation might be considered a "deprecated technology" as well. On the other hand, my apps would certainly require some tweaking to be included. I don't see this as insurmountable, but it certainly would require some work.

The larger concern for me is the 30% cut Apple takes, and the downward pressure on prices that the iOS store has placed. While I don't see Mac programs racing toward the 99 cent price point, I do wonder if $25 would be considered overpriced in the context of the App Store. I'm also wondering about the type of customer the App Store will likely attract. Most discussion I've read suggests that the App Store will greatly expand the software market by attracting users who haven't bought much software in the past. Given the power-user, geeky niche that many of my programs occupy (leveraging the Mac's Unix underpinnings), I'm not certain that casual customers will be drawn to my products. Questions of pricing, sales volume, and marketing strategy come into play here. If I lower my prices, and allow Apple to take its 30% cut, could I achieve enough increased volume through the App Store to make more money? These are challenging questions.

Another concern is this: Even if the App Store isn't de jure the only game in town, I wonder if it will become that way de facto--meaning that people don't look elsewhere for their software. Would I be losing out long-term by not being in the App Store, even if I don't like its terms or feel it's best for my products? Given the long-term arc of Apple's other transitions (Carbon to Cocoa, PPC support, etc.), it's not hard to imagine that, in four or five years, Apple might decide the App Store is the only game in town.

Fortunately, the App Store won't be available for 90 days, and even then, I will definitely take my time to observe how the App Store takes shape and this new software market evolves, and figure out the best way to accommodate this new market with my own products.

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