According to Hunter Hillegas of Hanchor LLC, having his app in the Mac App Store hit number six in a category chart (‘Developer Tools’), zooming past BBEdit and Coda, wasn’t reason enough to break out the champagne—nor did it provide enough revenue to even buy some champagne:

At the end of that Monday, I couldn’t wait to see the AppFigures.com report in the morning. I was excited enough that it was a little hard to sleep that night. When the report came in the next day, I was surprised: 11 copies had sold. Eleven. I had made enough money to buy a pizza… as long as it was a small one… without toppings

Hillegas wonders if Apple’s algorithms are broken, and if his experience points to greater problems with the Mac App Store:

As far as I know, Apple hasn’t released any stats on the Mac App Store since the day after it opened. Maybe that’s because they’re not that all that great. As a user, I love the convenience of the Mac App Store – I setup a new machine recently and for the apps purchased through that channel, it was super easy to get going. I hope all my software is delivered this way in the future.

That said, if this is the future of Mac apps, based on my experience it seems like it has a ways to go.

It’s easy to make excuses (or not) for Apple, but in this case I do think it’s necessary. The Mac App Store is a very different proposition to the iOS store, which Apple’s crowed about from a revenue standpoint at every opportunity:

  • The iOS store was available on iOS devices as of iOS 2.0.1, prior to which third-party applications were, to all extents and purposes, non-existent. By contrast, the Mac App Store is only available to Intel Macs whose users have upgraded to at least Mac OS X 10.6.6.
  • Ignoring jailbreaking, the iOS store is still the only place to get new software for iOS devices. For the Mac, you can buy boxed software or download from myriad locations.

I think as of Lion, developers like Hillegas could see some big changes. It’s pretty clear that the Mac App Store will be more heavily pushed by Apple as the place to download new software (possibly, by Mac OS X 10.8 or 10.9 becoming the only place), and as more users upgrade, the audience will grow.

I also suspect many holdouts—people used to the ‘old way’ of doing things—will change their habits soon enough. I’m in the process of installing a new Mac now, which has involved downloading a ton of DMGs, rifling through drawers for DVDs and locating serial numbers. But the few apps I’ve bought from the Mac App Store were installed by clicking an install button. The process was painless and convenient; in the long term, that alone should guarantee the Mac App Store (and developers capitalising on it) enjoys at least some measure of success.

Hat tip: The Brooks Review.