I can't has cheezburger

The Mac App Store is launching tomorrow, and it’s arguably the most exciting thing to have happened to Mac developers since XCode.  If you’re a tech enthusiast, it may be difficult to get excited about what is ultimately just a newly developed distribution system for the Mac apps we’ve known and loved for the past decade or so.  And it’s true that tomorrow we enthusiasts probably won’t see too many things beyond maybe the launch of a couple new exciting apps (iWork ’11 and Twitter are two top contenders).

The Mac App Store is exciting to me because earlier this year, a lot of people in the blogosphere were looking at iPad and iOS as nails in OS X’s coffin.  WWDC this year was primarily focused on iOS stuff, and Mac stuff hadn’t really been touched all that much.  It kind of looked like OS X was becoming Apple’s bastard child.  And numbers could (kind of) back it.  iOS’s market share has grown explosively.  iOS is the dominant player in the mobile phone market (with Android a very close second) and it’s the clear frontrunner in the tablet space, which is huge because other people have been at it for years trying to make tablets into a viable platform and Apple just stepped in and obliterated them.  Hell, Apple obliterated them before they even had publicly announced that iPad even existed.

With iOS’s blinding success, it would seem to start getting harder and harder to justify continuing to put development resources into the Mac, especially as iOS keeps getting more sophisticated and its feature set approaches that of desktop Macs.  Apple’s iOS devices are incredibly streamlined, with Apple having designed pretty much the whole thing from the ground up, which not only gives Apple a great price advantage, but it also makes repairs of the devices simple–repairing an iOS device is simply a matter of going to an Apple store and swapping it out for a new one, at which point in time the Apple store recycles the old one and you sync your new one with iTunes/MobileMe and you’re back in business.  iOS devices are a goddamn profit machine.  Though I justified the change in focus (OS X is a mature platform and doesn’t need as much attention as the toddler iOS), even I was starting to get nervous that Apple would exercise some of its über-willingness to part ways with the old to make way for the new on the Macintosh platform, and I was doubly nervous that they’d do it before I was ready (they have a tendency to let go of the past a couple years earlier than others).

When Apple announced OS X 10.7 in the fall, Mac aficionados all breathed a heavy sigh of relief, because Apple decided to start the Mac App Store.  On the surface, it looks a little underwhelming at best (this is the revolutionary new Mac feature?) but really this is a perfect move.  The iOS App Store wasn’t the first of its kind, but its superior integration and overall ease of use made it scarily simple to blow money on apps for your iPhone.  Any developer with a Mac and $100 could crank out iPhone apps and sell them (or give them away) on the App Store (that might sound like a steep barrier of entry, but look at the barriers of entry to any mobile platform before iOS).  These were the perfect conditions for explosive App Store growth and sales, and though there was a bit of a bubble of crappy apps for awhile, I’ve found that there’s a very good supply of very high quality apps at reasonable prices.  The App Store has made iOS into a platform I love and have little desire to leave (despite some of the Android features that entice me so).

Mac apps have never really been hard to buy and install, but there’s certainly nothing quite as straightforward as having an app store to open up, browse and buy.  The apps even get updated automatically for you, and they are even installed on all of your Macs!  The licensing scheme is always the same no matter what app you’re buying, and only Apple has your credit card information.  Plus, buying the app is as simple as a click and a typing of your password.  No OS X indie developer has ever been able to make the app purchasing process quite that simple.  There has always been a pretty good deal of friction when buying an app.  This may not be enough friction to deter a savvy computer user from buying a quality program, but what about your mother?  Your grandmother?  Surely they will find the process daunting, even if they like the program and want to buy it.

Purchasing difficulties aside, there’s also never really been a super easy way to install OS X apps.  They’re always distributed as either a .dmg file, which is difficult to explain to a beginner, a .zip file, which can result in apps not being put where they belong, or it’s distributed in an installer package.  I wouldn’t say any of those installation methods are particularly hard, but again, think of grandmas trying to install apps.

With the Mac App Store, it’s no longer difficult to purchase or download Mac apps.  This is going to result in a shit ton more sales, which is great for indie developers.  Having all the apps live in a central place creates a relatively level playing field, which saves developers from having to worry about marketing (though they’re still free to do their own if they want to).  Now, developers can spend more time focusing on making good apps, and with a more sure and steady stream of income, they will be able to spend even more time on development, which is going to result in some kick ass indie apps being created.  And that, my friends, is a truly exciting part of the Mac App Store.

In 2010, Mac users have gone from being worried whether their Macs have a future, to potentially opening up a brand new era for the Mac; one that will no doubt result in a better platform for everybody.  It’s a win no matter how you look at it!