The latest genius from the minds of Jobs and company has just recently been released – Mac user, meet the Mac App Store. On release it has over a thousand apps of different categories both paid for and free.
I would actually go as far as saying that this handy app revolutionizes the app discovery and purchasing for Macs. Why is it so awesome? Because it simply works. You get access to customer reviews and ratings, screenshots, and it also keeps your apps updated. I’m not sure if it’s going to be available but I can’t find a list of “similar apps” in the individual app page. I’m almost certain it will be available in the future though.
It definitely makes everything more convenient. Look for an app, hit download, wait for it to finish with a progress bar displayed on your dock – and that’s it. Completely simple and no-nonsense. For developers, the entire ecosystem of the App Store definitely is a great platform to make money with Apps. This implies that we could expect Apps with better quality and possibly even cheaper (look at all those $.99 apps for your Mac!)
Another interesting, yet easily overlooked feature of the new Mac App Store is its ability to search the app store for an app for files you can’t open on your mac. While not entirely new, it’s a handy feature to have just in case.
Bottom line is – it worked for the iPhone, it worked for the iPad, it will definitely work for the Mac. The only thing I’m curious about right now is how they’ll deal with app piracy but that’s an entirely different topic.
If you don’t have the new Mac App Store in your Mac yet, just click on the apple button and hit Software Update. It will update your OSX to 10.6.6 and after you reboot, it should appear on your dock, right beside the Finder. You can actually head over to the Apple website to see the key features of the new App Store for mac as well as a list of great mac apps to download while you’re waiting for your update to finish downloading.