Comments on: Apple’s Mac App Store: A First Look from a Skewed Perspective

By: Guy Serle

Guy Serle — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:17:27 +0000

Thanks for the nice words Scott. However while the big boys won’t play now, you can bet they’re eyeing this with great interest. Microsoft for probably making their own App Store and Adobe for…well why would Adobe find the App Store interesting? Apple makes money from both hardware and software and the software side doesn’t really generate the kind of cash the hardware does and that’s OK. It’s how Apple wants it. The software is the hook to get you to buy the hardware. Adobe just makes money on software. The days where they can just throw out a product and people will rush to Amazon or Best Buy to get it are coming to an end and the Mac App Store is another nail in the coffin. They need Mac users to buy their products especially the Elements ones which most likely far outstrip sales of CS-whatever. With the Mac App Store a lot of more casual users will be exposed to software that does much of what Adobe’s products do at a much cheaper price. Now throw in reviews from these users. Adobe can’t afford to NOT be in the Mac App Store with their Elements products the question is how long will it take them to figure this out.

Here’s my prediction. Adobe will have some of their products (maybe even Premeire or Photoshop Elements) BEFORE the end of 2011.

By: Scott Willsey

Scott Willsey — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:39:23 +0000

Great article, Guy. My only comment is about #4…

The big box shipping guys really don’t need an app store to sell product anyway (Adobe, Microsoft, etc), and the people that do need the app store to get their product in front of more people tend to be indies who generally don’t ship a box but have downloadable software.

So to me, it seems that they will go to a situation where they potentially have more eyes on their product (how many people’s parents ever bought any indie software?) but will suddenly be losing 30% on each sale compared to previously. It’ll take a few more sales to make up that difference.

Also, I can’t really see some of the big names being willing to give Apple 30% of something like Photoshop, etc.

It’ll be interesting to see how it pays off for developers. Regardless, it will increase people finding more 3rd party software, and probably more sales of 3rd party software in general as well.

One other thing I like about it is that Apple now has lowered the price on such apps as Aperture 3, and you can buy the iLife apps separately for $15 now. Even if you buy iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband, it’s still less than the $79 it used to cost to buy iLife on disc.