Developer(s) Apple Inc. Platform Mac | Development status Active | |
Initial release January 6, 2011; 6 years ago (2011-01-06) Stable release 2.2 / June 24, 2016; 8 months ago (2016-06-24) Operating system | ||
Mac App Store is a digital distribution platform for macOS applications, created by Apple Inc. The platform was announced on October 20, 2010, at Apple's "Back to the Mac" event. Apple began accepting app submissions from registered developers on November 3, 2010, in preparation for its launch.
Contents
It was released on January 6, 2011, as part of the free Mac OS X 10.6.6 update for all current Snow Leopard users. After 24 hours of release, Apple announced that there were over one million downloads.
Regulations
Like iOS App Store, Mac App Store is regulated by Apple.
To submit an app for consideration, the developer (or his company) must be a member of the Apple Developer Program. As of July 2015, the membership fee is US$99.
Applications must be approved by Apple before becoming available on the store. Disallowed types of applications revealed by Apple include:
Usage by Apple
Since the opening of Mac App Store, Apple Inc. has increasingly used it as the primary means of distribution of its own in-house software products at the expense of Apple-branded software applications being sold at Apple Store locations. This position was perceivably increased with the July 2011 release of OS X Lion, which was the first release of OS X not sold in the form of DVD boxes which had been traditionally used to distribute the operating system at Apple Store.
This method limited the reach of distribution of the operating system to those who currently use OS X 10.6.6+, although other means offered by Apple after the release included a USB flash drive containing the operating system and a digital in-store download of the operating system through Apple Store locations.
This has also affected Apple's prior means of distribution through its own website, with the Downloads gallery being removed in July 2011 and replaced with links to the Mac App Store information page. However, it has not affected the Dashboard widget gallery, nor has it affected the Safari Extensions gallery, both of which remain online and web-based. Apple Support Download section also remains online, as it provides mostly security updates for current and older software applications and operating systems, many dating back to before 1998.
Counterfeit apps
Not long after independent game developer Wolfire Games placed its game, Lugaru, on Mac App store, as Lugaru HD for $9.99, the developer noticed a counterfeit copy of their game also being sold on the App Store for $0.99 USD. The developer contacted Apple on January 31, 2011, and on February 10, 2011, the counterfeit copy of the game was removed from the App Store.
A number of news sites have remarked that for all the scrutiny Apple places on apps listed in their store, a counterfeit copy of an existing app should not have made it through the process, and the days it had been since the developer had alerted Apple to the counterfeit software is disconcerting to developers.
History
Mac App Store launched with over 1000 programs on January 6, 2011, including Apple's own iWork '09, iLife '11, Aperture and third-party applications ported from iOS, such as Angry Birds, Flight Control, Things and Twitter for Mac. Most of the apps belonged to the Games category, which had nearly three times as many apps in the next largest category, Utilities. The most common price point was $20–50. Angry Birds, a popular video game on iOS App Store, was the number one paid app on Mac App Store on the first day.
An update to Mac App Store for OS X Mountain Lion also introduced an Easter egg in which, if one downloads an app from Mac App Store and goes to one's applications folder before the app has finished downloading, one will see the application's timestamp as "January 24, 1984, at 2:00 AM," the date the original Macintosh went on sale. This is the first time an Easter egg has appeared in a piece of Apple software since Steve Jobs' ban on Easter eggs when he returned to lead Apple.
On November 11, 2015, a number of applications purchased through Mac App Store began to fail at launch. Users worldwide got error messages and were forced to delete and re-download affected apps. It was discovered the next day by Tapbots developer Paul Haddad that the issue had to do with an expired security certificate. On November 17, Apple sent an email with explanations to developers. The company stated that most of the issues were resolved and that troubleshooting information was provided to the AppleCare support team.
On December 17, 2015, responsibility for overseeing App Store was given to Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. Previously App Store was led by Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.