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Mac App Store to sell iLife and iWork Mac apps individually

updated 05:40 am EDT, Thu October 21, 2010

Adopts iPad App store model for iWork apps

In Apple's Back to the Mac presentation, Steve Jobs and VP Craig Federighi discussed and offered a quick demo of the new Mac App Store that will be made available for Snow Leopard users in around 90 days. An interesting observation made has noted that Apple apparently intends on selling its iLife apps, and its iWork apps through the store, but available for individual download. Until the appearance of the new Mac App Store, both suites of applications have only been sold as part of a bundle.

During the Back to the Mac keynote, Steve Jobs indicated the new Macbook Airs are shipping with iLife '11 pre-installed. Currently, existing users of iLife '09 wanting to upgrade any one of the apps must purchase the full suite of iLife '11 apps that is retailing for $49. Apple first introduced the concept of buying individual apps from its iWork suite upon the launch of the iPad, through the iPad App Store. iPad users have been able to download Pages, Numbers, and Keynote individually for $10 each. Mac users have had to opt for the iWork bundle, which retails for $79.

Gauging by the presentation, iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand for Mac will be available for $15 each through the Mac App Store, as will Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

by MacNN Staff



  1. daqman

    Joined: Dec 1969


    This could be a good thing

    Unless the sum of the cost of parts of the bundle comes out greater than the bundle cost this is a good thing. I use iPhoto extensively and sometimes iWeb but have never had a need for iMovie and Garageband. I think bundling it skews Apple's perspective on which parts of iLife and iWork that people find important. Steve was talking yesterday about the millions of Garageband users but is that true? Given the choice how many people would actually buy Garageband?

    Comment buried. Show
  1. ppshopping03

    Joined: Dec 1969






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    Tshirts (Polo ,ed hardy,lacoste) $15

    Jean(True Religion,ed hardy,coogi) $30


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  1. Geoduck

    Joined: Dec 1969


    A very good thing.

    Even if the total of the parts is higher than the full bundle cost this is good. Sure at $15 a piece the total bundle would cost would be $60 but I'm only going to upgrade iPhoto. It's still $15 for the part I want vs $49 for the part I want plus a bunch of stuff I never use.

  1. qazwart

    Joined: Dec 1969


    Selling More Apps

    I wonder how many people buy applications beyond what is installed on their machine. I certainly do and so does everybody on this blog, but what about the other 99% of the Mac owners?

    I know that most people seldom go beyond what's on their systems. They're afraid to download anything and even find dragging and dropping something into the Applications folder confusing.

    The App Store for the iPhone has shown that the vast majority of users will buy apps if they're easy to use as they are on the iPhone. People who rarely go beyond iLife on their Macs are seen with dozens of games and apps on their iPhones.

    A Mac App store might be a big boost for the desktop development industry -- especially if application developers take the hint from Apple and keep their applications relatively cheap. Not iPhone 99 cent cheap, but $10 instead of $50 cheap.

    The idea is to go for quantity. If the Mac App store takes off, instead of selling 10,000 copies of your software for $50, you'll be selling 100,000 copies for $10.

  1. kerryb

    Joined: Dec 1969


    Downloading app is not new but

    ... the app store the iPhone/iPad have proven to be a huge success for Apple and developers to that that platform. These app stores will give developers a big boost especially startups with limited advertising budgets. Apple has brought the real benefits of being a geek to the masses once again.

  1. testudo

    Joined: Dec 1969


    Re: Downloading app is not new but


    OK, please explain how a startup with a limited advertising budget is going to get their app seen on the AppStore (without paying Apple to 'feature' it) in amongst all the other apps from all the other companies with a limited ad budget?

    And I seem to recall when some developers were critical of the iOS AppStore and how their product got lost in there, critics jumped on them and told them the app store wasn't a substitute for actually advertising and promoting your product.

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