Non AppStore Apps Need Not Apply

Ars is reporting that Apple is only considering OS X applications in the Mac AppStore for Apple Design Awards this year. Considering that Apple only gave out awards to iOS applications last year, I guess you could call this progress. Does it technically count as progress if you’re almost but not quite back to the point where you started?

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, it could hurt developers who make great apps. SpamSieve, a great application that adds killer spam filtering to, wouldn’t be eligible because it’s not in the AppStore. Because of how it’s implemented, it will likely never be in the AppStore, which is a shame because it means a lot of people might never see it. Michael Tsai, who created SpamSieve is understandably grumbly about this.

Exclusion of great applications is just one problem. I think the 30% cut is too large, though I concede that hosting downloads, handling payments, and providing a registration system do have value. As great as that is, Apple still doesn’t have a way to support trial or shareware models short of the developer hacking around with in-app payments or providing two versions of the same application. Considering the focus Apple is putting on AppStores, they could put more resources into making things better.

Curating is also a double edged sword. A curated AppStore means that the applications users find are going to work and going to be of a certain quality. I don’t think you’re going to find a glut of crummy, nonfunctional applications on MacUpdate, but I would expect Apple to be less forgiving. The downside is that Apple calls the shots. Any application that doesn’t play by Apple’s rules (which are often ill-defined and always subject to change) aren’t going to get exposure. While some people confuse the AppStore with package management systems, the real analogy is gamine consoles. That’s the model at play here; you have a platform owner that approves of software and takes a cut of profit.

What I can’t say yet is whether or not the AppStore on whole is good for developers and users. I hope that it is, but I don’t think we will know for certain until we’ve seen it in operation for a number of years. It’s my hope that the AppStore will lead to more people buying (or just installing) applications. I think this is generally a net positive for users. One of the reasons I think web applications have been so popular in the last decade is because they just work “out of the box” for the average user. Techies are so plugged into how computers work that we often can’t comprehend how many hurdles there are for a nontechnical user to download and install an application. Just figuring out which directory downloads are stored in can be a real problem. I’ve seen Mac users run applications directly from a mounted disk image, never figuring out that they need to drag the application to the root application directory. The application appears to have disappeared on the next reboot.

If the AppStore leads to more people actually installing applications, I think this is also probably a net positive for developers as it should grow the audience for their applications. I also think this makes it more likely companies will build native interfaces in addition to or even in place of web applications for services which win for user interfaces and user experience.

Overall I’m still ambivalent. I would like Apple to be less controlling of the AppStore, but if the AppStore drives usage of native software, it may be worth the price of admission.