The Omni Group

The standards Apple will be enforcing for apps listed in the store will set a baseline for overall quality and make it less likely that apps will interfere with each other.

I certainly like this, but I do have a question of how far that will be taken. For example ‘Shift+Command+N’ does two things on my Mac. If Tweetie is open, it makes up a new tweet. If Tweetie is not open and Chrome is—which is often the case—it opens a new Incognito window in Chrome. Does this count?

I often find myself fixing keybindings and shortcuts, but I would much rather this than have my programs gimped because they need to pass App Store requirements.

I agree with all your questions and challenges in paragraph 5. Do you have or have you seen any good answers to these?

Are you going to continue to sell software directly to those who want to buy it directly from you so you can offer upgrade discounts, immediate bug fixes, etc.?

I’d like to see that at least until there are good answers to all the questions and challenges. Perhaps Apple will eventually allow “x number of day trials” and upgrade pricing, but until they do I prefer the old model. I agree it is great to get in front of people who wouldn’t have found you otherwise so a dual store model is probably good for you (and other developers) if you can come up with reasonable answers to at least some of the issues.

As opposed to your current offerings, will Mac app store-delivered apps from your company actually work?

“Or for people who want to upgrade from Standard to Pro?”
This is the one query I would have thought would be answered in theory already.

Assuming they allow for some form on in-app purchases like you can have with apps on iOS right now, you just sell the “Standard” edition, and then allow a user to do an ‘in-app purchase’ that unlocks the extra features available to Pro users.

Great article. Unfortunately the application we make doesn’t conform to Apple’s guidelines for the Mac App store, so we won’t be taking advantage of it. However, it might be something I’d consider using in the future.

One thing I take issue with, as do several of the other commentors, is Apple’s unwavering control over the whole thing. Frankly it worries me that Apple can be so draconian and yet is so big that when people “vote with their wallets” about their policies, it likely doesn’t make a dent in their attitude. If I don’t buy an iPad for the simple reason I can’t install 3rd-party software on it, Apple doesn’t notice the difference in its revenue.

For that reason I would like to see more developers openly criticising Apple’s policies more strongly, at least so that there is more of a “dialog” as opposed to a “broadcast”.

Hi Moritz and others,

I am meaning neither to offense nor criticize Apple. I am just worrying. All my stuffs are in Mac platform. I don’t know if I have Mac to use after 30 years or more. Apple is a monster now. But does this mean it will live longer?

Comparing Apple to Hitler and Napolean just refer to the rising and falling speed. Do you think Gaussian (normal) distribution can explain many things?

As a big fan of Apple, I hope Steve Jobs can push Apple going further, not just higher.

I am sorry if my comparison hurts anybody.

Zhanmei

So what about all those issues? You are willing to sacrifice all that just to gain a little more costumers?

Look… maybe in the iPhone app store with apps of .99 dls you could just buy “and see what it happens”. But not here.. At least im not buying anything in there unless i can try the software before. Im not paying a cent based on customer reviews… This is it…. Apple went to far with this.. and im so pissed

@Alejandro,

Just who are you upset at?  Apple?  They haven’t forced anyone to buy or sell through their new store.  All they have done is offer a new channel for distribution.  If your favorite developer decides that they only want to sell through the new App Store, your quarrel is with their choice, not with Apple.

Dirk: how many times does Ken have to say that they will also continue selling software directly? Chill, dude.

Ugh. OK, Ken. Good for you. I know Omni has a history with Steve and Next, so, hey, I guess I’m glad you’re excited.

But count me as one owner of ~3 Omni products who could not be LESS enthusiastic about this customer castrating Apple store. I will never buy a piece of Omni software there.

On your site, I can *try before I buy*. I can get a refund for 30 days. Again: I don’t have to buy an app blind, without using it and no recourse if I hate it. This has bitten me many times on the iPhone store.

On your site, I can move my software to a new computer without proving to Apple or anyone else that I “own” both computers (I originally bought OmniOutliner Pro (with my own money) for a work Mac before moving it to home when I left that job).

On your site, if something goes wrong I can get in touch with actual human beings in a reasonable amount of time.  And they’re actually helpful!

The proposed Mac Store is a backward, customer hostile, arrogant way of selling software. And it’s shameful that only by using this Apple controlled vortex of abuse do Mac owners FINALLY get the decent package management Linux has had for a decade or two. Apple could have built auto update into the system software for all apps, it’s completely orthogonal to this store.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Poor Ken,

No one reads what you’ve stated so clearly many times over, and want to keep bitching about the same thing that’s been answered five times over.

I bet you have a hard time keeping your pleasant tone with these responses.

The only concern that seems very relevant is the idea that I might buy software for work , then bring it home, but you know, I’ve never had trouble authorizing both computers to use my iTunes account, and all my media transfers just fine. I fail to see a real problem, especially considering that there are other avenues if the setup doesn’t suit you.

Now please finish my dream product, OmniOutliner for iPad! :)

I instensely hope that you and other developers will continue to sell normally, as well as through the app store.  A big concern for me is education sales, though it presumably also applies to many businesses and government agencies.

If anyone here wants to buy software at work with the app store as the only option, it’s probably not going to happen in the near future.  Our purchasing department has no mechanism for such a thing as apple store accounts linked to particular devices, and I’m not going to link my personal account to a work machine even if I could somehow manage to get repaid via petty cash (unlikely).  And getting a state school/agency to buy iTunes gift cards as a work around?  That would go over well in the public record.  University owned macs are still in a minority here, and I doubt that there will be much effort put into figuring out how to do app store accounts in the near future due to lack of resources.  Also, keeping track of assorted registration codes for a large department is bad enough; adding app store accounts and credentials multiplies the headaches.

I do know about Apple’s educational Volume Purchase.  Maybe someday they’ll get that to fly, but for now it’s not ready for prime time, especially for a university department that doesn’t do volume so much as odds and ends for a few people at a time here and there.  It wouldn’t help businesses and state agencies at all.

Even at home, I’ll avoid the app store as much as possible even if that means not upgrading my current software in many cases.  A centrally managed application source is a privacy invasion—I’d just as soon keep apple’s (and any other company’s) nose out of my business as to the agregate of which software I install, and may or may not actually run, on my machines.  I reluctantly tolerate it on the lightly used portables, but not on my main working computers.  There’s also the hassle of -not- updating certain apps.  I’m already juggling about a dozen iThing apps that I don’t want upgraded because the ‘upgrade’ is a downgrade for assorted reasons, and having to do that with even a fraction of the hundreds of applications on my multiple machines (which often need different versions of things) gives me the grues.