As one developer pithily put it, Apple is doing a half-assed job. And the MAS is lacking some features - including support for beta testing, video demos of apps, and data analytics - that Apple provides iOS developers in its iTunes Store. The store also makes it hard - if not impossible - to provide trial pricing to new customers or special upgrade pricing to existing ones. Selling direct makes for more direct conversations, which many developers prize. Often, the only point of contact is in the store’s reviews section - hardly the ideal venue for one-to-one customer interaction. (Image: Apple)ĭevelopers also cite the barriers Apple puts between them and their customers. Not the ideal venue for customer interaction. That’s particularly bad when a developer wants to release an update to its app: Even if the new version contains a crucial bug fix, customers will have to wait for the review before they can download it. ![]() Those reviews can take a week or longer (in some cases much longer). While the goal is noble, the results may not be. They also cite the review process (under which Apple reviews all apps submitted “to ensure they are reliable, perform as expected, and are free of offensive material”). Not the only issueīut sandboxing isn’t the only reason app developers are opting out of the store. But they effectively tied the hands of software developers.Īs Vero Pepperrell of Running with Crayons puts it, “Sandboxing naturally excludes apps that work within the heart of OS X, such as Alfred.” She points to the Web-editing tool Coda as a prime example of an app that “became far better once it left the MAS, by allowing people to interact with their file system without the quirkiness of the sandbox.”Īpple’s sandboxing requirements for the MAS left those developers with two options: Implement sandboxing so their apps could be sold in the MAS or ignore that requirement and sell the apps outside the store. They were, metaphorically, each kept in their own separate “boxes.” Those restrictions were designed to reduce the risks of malware gaining access to your Mac’s most sensitive bits. In 2012, Apple introduced a new requirement for apps that would be sold from the Mac App Store: They had to be “sandboxed,” meaning they were given limited access to system files and resources. And that choice often hinges on one word: “sandboxing.” The choice of whether to be in the store or not often comes down to what a developer wants a specific app to do. The list of apps that aren’t in the store is a long one, and it includes many I personally use every single day: Bartender, BBEdit, Dropbox, f.lux, Google Chrome, Hazel, Keyboard Maestro, Little Snitch, Microsoft Office, and TextExpander, among many others.Īnd for still other devs, the correct response to the “Sell it ourselves or on the MAS?” question is “both.” For example, the Omni Group (makers of OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, and other fine apps) sells its software both through the MAS (“letting you purchase, download, and install our apps with just one step,” says CEO Ken Case) and directly from its own site (where it can offer trial and beta downloads, pricing upgrades, and discounts for volume purchases). Last year, one of the flagship apps for the Mac - BBEdit - pulled out. ![]() Sketch is hardly the first and almost certainly won’t be the last app to leave the store. The latest example of the latter: Bohemian Coding, which (as Federico Viticci reported) just removed its image-editing app Sketch from the MAS. In fact, many developers decided not to put their apps in the store, and many who did later took them out. For developers, the MAS provided a venue where buyers could discover apps they might never have run across before and then buy them with just a couple of clicks.īut the reality hasn’t always matched expectations. When Apple opened the Mac App Store (MAS) back in 2011, it seemed like a great thing for end users and app developers alike: For regular users, it was a one-stop shop for all their Mac software needs, built into the OS and tied to their existing Apple accounts.
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