With the iPhone AppStore now
nearing 10,000 apps, it's undeniably been a successful software distribution for Apple's mobile platform combo of the iPhone and iPod Touch. The AppStore/iTunes combo has filled in one of the primary failings of getting 3rd-party applications onto mobile phones - the complexity and finding, paying for, downloading, and transferring software from your PC to your mobile phone (not to mention application updates).
There are other benefits that come with the AppStore. Users have a trusted repository of Apple-approved software (a mixed blessing, for sure) from which they can quickly and easily browse and install software. Unlike just downloading applications from the Internet at large, the idea that the software maybe malware is largely not a concern.
The AppStore is even better for developers, as they get a 70% cut of the profits (if they so choose to charge for their software), and almost certainly making it easier for customers to pay for the software, as they don't have to enter their credit card information into yet another system that they've likely never used before.
As our Internet connections get faster, and more and more software moves to digital distribution, the concept of a simple, easy-to-use, and namely
built-in mechanism for getting software seems like a no-brainer. Being a standard part of the operating system is important, because without ubiquity, a developer must rely on the user knowing not only what software to get, but
where to get it. If a user knows that the AppStore is the place to find new applications, they're simply more likely to find your application (or even stumble upon it by accident).
Apple should make an AppStore for the Macintosh as well. It's not even a novel idea, as most Linux distributions have long-ago been using repositories and applications like
apt and
yum to get pre-packaged software onto their platform. By making an AppStore for the Mac, many of the benefits conferred upon iPhone developers will find their way to OS X developers as well, which should, in theory, lead to an even healthier software ecosystem for the platform.
The AppStore also removes the need for every application to support software update frameworks like
Sparkle. It can post and help distribute software updates automatically, allowing applications to remain just that much simpler.
Another side-effect of the AppStore is that top-10 lists are a great way to get popular software to users without them having to ask their friend/post on a message board saying "Hey, I just got a Mac, what software should I download?"
Honestly, this is so obvious, I better see an AppStore on the Mac by next year.
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