Is this a good or bad thing? The Mac store will be the OS X analog to the iPhone App Store. If it’s as shoddy and poorly organized with no real ability to sort through the store like it is on the iPhone, then it’s going to be just another excuse to drink the kool-aid. I suspect that it will be just that though. Given that they are marketing thing like, “Buy and download. And even redownload.”, there’s really no hope. That’s an extremely basic feature that is widely prevalent all over the Internet. Yet in the Mac store it’s a feature? Something is very wrong.
But the hype doesn’t stop there.
The easiest installation ever.
The Mac App Store revolutionizes the way applications are installed on a computer — it happens in one step. Enter the same iTunes password you use to buy apps on iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. And within seconds, your new app flies to your Dock, ready to go.
Huh? Ahem… “Revolutionizes”??? This is a serious WTF moment. Didn’t you mean to say, “We’re copying the Ubuntu Software Center and hyping it as innovation!” That software goes back to 1998 in one form or another. 12 years later?
My biggest worry is that this will end up locking down the Mac the same way the iPhone is locked down. Given the changes in the new OS X (Lion), I don’t think my fears are totally unfounded. Apple has a good history of greed and contempt for its users and developers.
Apple has a lot of ground to cover if they plan on releasing something that’s actually good, and not just a kool-aid excuse like so much of what they do. They’ll need to compete with stores that have been in business for a very long time.
To top it all off, they’re going to be competing with businesses that have been strong supporters of Apple like Download.com (which absorbed VersionTracker.com, one of the top Mac download sites). It seems like Apple is determined to eat every portion of the “apple pie” and not share anything. This is in stark contrast to other companies that have thrived on encouraging third parties to participate. It looks like Apple just wants participation until such a point as they can take over themselves.
But they are doing a good job of it. They’re focusing on taking over retail and limiting access. This really is the best way to choke out competition. Got to hand it to them, for a bunch of greedy pigs, they’re smart greedy pigs.
I have a hard time believing that this is truly going to be a good thing in the long run.
Posted by Ryan 
