Apple has announced it will launch it Mac App Store on January 7 in 90 countries, including New Zealand.What the iTunes App Store has been to the iPhone and iPad, the Mac App Store will be for Macs and MacBooks. Wellington developer Dave Frampton, for on
Apple has announced it will launch it Mac App Store on January 7 in 90 countries, including New Zealand.
What the iTunes App Store has been to the iPhone and iPad, the Mac App Store will be for Macs and MacBooks.
Wellington developer Dave Frampton, for one, is amped over the development.
Mr Frampton's one-man development company, Majic Jungle, has sold hundreds of thousands of copies of Chopper (iPhone) and the new Chopper 2 (iPhone and iPad).
ABOVE: Like Chopper for iPad, the Mac version will let you use your iPhone as a touchscreen remote.
Now, in anticipation of the Mac App Store launch, the ex-weather graphics man has created a Mac version of Chopper.
It's been approved by Apple, ready for release when the Mac App Store goes online in the New Year.
Few buying software now, he suspects
"Apple are selling 3-4 million Macs per quarter, or about 40,000 a day, and currently I suspect that the majority of those users buy little if any third party software," Mr Frampton told NBR this morning.
"But that's about to change, as the one-click purchase and the trust in the approval process that has already proved so successful on the iPhone comes to the Mac."
Frampton comes alive
The developer said he was "incredibly excited" about the launch.
"The customer base for my apps will increase by an order of magnitude, and finally I can ditch the horrible user experience of registration codes and convoluted payment systems.
"I also expect that the App Store will increase the utility of Macs, which will increase Mac sales in the years to come. So an already growing market is just going to keep getting bigger, and I'm really stoked to be a part of it."
70/30 split
In a statement this morning, Apple said it would let publishers keep 70% of revenue from commercial software sold via the Mac App Store, the same cut as the iPhone/iPad/Touch App Store.
Developers can find out more or register at developer.apple.com/programs/mac.
The Mac App Store is available to Mac OS X Snow Leopard users as a free download through Software Update.
According to figures supplied to NBR by market researcher IDC (see table below), Apple has just under 10% share of the personal computer market in New Zealand - roughly in line with it worldwide standing.
