The real problem with the Mac App Store
Apple’s soon to unleash its Mac App Store. Similarly to the App Store for iOS devices, it will provide a central location for Mac apps to be bought, and Apple will take a 30 percent cut. In return, Apple will deal with hosting and billing, along with potentially providing visibility for apps from a range of developers.
Lots of people have said this is the Worst Idea Ever, presumably not fully understanding that most computer users never buy an application, and many of those who do get hugely confused during the install process (often running applications from disk images that they never unmount). A one-click purchase followed by a single-click ‘update everything’ button has the potential to revolutionise software purchase and installation.
The problem I have with Apple’s plans is that the existing App Store is horrible. Ignoring for a moment its terrible search and sluggish performance, the service is a bug-ridden mess. Every single time I try to redeem a promotional code, I am greeted with six error dialog boxes. Every time I try to update my apps, I’m told the information being displayed is ‘outdated’ and that I should refresh the page. Often, I’ll find that I’m being presented with an update to an app that’s no longer available, meaning the ‘update all’ button doesn’t work. Connection errors are commonplace. If this was just me, fair enough, but Apple’s support forums are littered with people suffering from the exact same problem—and when one error is fixed in an iTunes update or ‘behind the scenes’, another appears.
For me, this is a head-banging-on-desk kind of frustration, but for the typical iOS device owner it utterly destroys the user experience. If the Mac App Store suffers from similar errors, it won’t be enough of a step-up from the existing software purchase and installation model. For most companies, that would be fine, but for Apple this shouldn’t be good enough.
This is a fair point, but perhaps Apple will actually be using the Mac App Store as a chance to “reboot” the whole App buying process?
Using iTunes to manage an original iPhone, when it couldn’t run apps, made some sense – you were only dealing with the iPod functions of it really, so why not manage it using the same app that handles all your music, videos etc, and that you already manage you iPod from.
Now that the iPhone is far less of an iPod-and-Phone and much more a “tablet”, dealing with apps etc from within iTunes makes no sense, even before we get to buggy awfulness that it is. But it has shown that the whole “curated, walled-garden” style app market works, with simplified purchasing etc.
I would hope that this means that the Mac App Store will have the best bits of the iOS App store, but rather than being an add-on as the concept developed along with the device, it will be a fresh system that is designed for the process from the beginning, and avoiding the whole iTunes problem. Perhaps this will actually mean the iOS App store moves to a new platform of the Mac App Store, rather than the Mac App Store muscling in on the iOS App Store.
Whether it will or not, I don’t know, but given the moves to bringing some iOS features to the Mac, and developers actually bringing iOS apps to the Mac, maybe a unified App store where you can buy a truly “Universal” app, and run it on anything with an Apple logo will materialise, tackling both the issues with the current App Store, and with the app eco-system as a whole.
For the record, I don’t have a problem with the ‘walled garden’ approach, especially for indies, where it can work wonders. I have a problem with the bugs, which Apple has shown it’s incapable of fixing (or unwilling to devote the resources for doing so) in a timely manner.
Perhaps Apple will start from scratch, but I have a feeling it’ll be using the same underlying technology from the App Store.
And you’re even forgetting the forced updates of apps, you can’t skip an update if you think the update will make it worse, or even not working , as happened to geometry wars for ios 3 users..
You can absolutely skip an update, simply don’t download it.