In an effort to bring even greater unity between its flagship iTunes, Mac OS and iPhone products, Apple’s online applications downloading service, essentially an app store for full computers, will open on Monday, Dec. 13, an “inside source” told Appletell.com, an analogue of App Store, which offers various applications for smartphones iPhones, iPods and iPads, much earlier than planned.
The source claimed that even if Apple delayed the launch of the store, it would most certainly try to launch it before Christmas to try and cash-in on the holiday season. The company has told its developers that the new Mac App Store will not be a front for application demos, trials or beta versions, Apple Insider reports.
If the store does launch next week, it would be way ahead of schedule. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs first unveiled plans for the Mac App Store in late October, he said that it would be available to Snow Leopard users in “90 days,” indicating that the store would launch at the end of the January. Moreover, Apple started reviewing applications for the store last month. It may need more time to get the store up and running with a number of apps that it feels comfortable offering.
The original announcement of the Mac App Store on October 20 said that the software distribution capability would be available “within 90 days,” which would put the store opening into January. Jobs wanted an earlier release, and the word on the street is that the early release drops next week. That’s just in time for all of those shiny new Macs that will be appearing under Christmas trees, and it means that the release of iWork ’11 (which many believe will be the marquee app for the new store) may be imminent as well.
Rather than use the Mac store for a testing ground, Apple suggests on its developer website that software makers use their own turf. “Your website is the best place to provide demos, trial versions or betas of your software for customers to explore,” the company says. “The apps you submit to be reviewed for the Mac App Store should be fully functional, retail versions of your apps.”
The store represents a significant break with the software distribution model used by the entire computing industry since the 1980s, and reflects recent trends like a drastic increase in bandwidth speed and the popularity of computers without CD/DVD drives. Prices of the paid software are likely to be set by developers. Apple intends to transfer 70% of the product value to the developer, and the remaining 30% will go to Steve Jobs and co.
Apple had originally talked about launching the Mac App Store by late January 2011. Despite the fact that January is not far, but Mac App Store may open well before that. The Mac App Store will require an OS update to end users and the new OS X 10.6.6 has already been seeded to developers. If true, they are being pretty aggressive with this timeline.
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