Mac App Store: Blueprint for the software retailer of tomorrow?

Compared to some Apple product launches, the debut of the Mac App Store last Thursday was a subdued affair. Current Mac users can’t even access the store until they update to Mac OS X 10.6.6. But depending on whom you ask, the Mac App Store is either the most revolutionary software delivery mechanism for desktop computers since the floppy disk or the death knell for independent software developers everywhere.

While app stores are familiar to smartphone owners, the concept of a one-stop shop for desktop PC software is relatively untried. So far, however, Apple’s experiment seems to be a success. In a press release, the company said the Mac App Store had already served 1 million downloads by the close of its first day. That’s sure to attract the attention of competitors — indeed, Microsoft has already said it is planning an app store to coincide with the next iteration of Windows (expected in 2012). If this becomes a trend, some developers fear that desktop software could soon be governed by the same kind of restrictions we see in the smartphone market.

Whether desktop app stores will succeed in the long run, however, is hard to predict. And no matter what vendors and developers might like to think, the OS and the quality of the apps aren’t the only factors that will come into play — far from it. For this software delivery method to truly take off with mainstream consumers, app stores are going to have to become more like real stores — and if they do, their benefits could actually far outweigh their disadvantages for independent developers.

Our store, our rules

By now the litany of complaints about Apple’s iOS App Store is well-trodden ground. Chief among the gripes is that Apple assumes the authority to accept or reject apps from the store for a variety of reasons, and sometimes its decisions can seem capricious or arbitrary. Open source software, in particular, is largely excluded, because free software licenses are incompatible with the terms of Apple’s SDK.

The arrival of the Mac App Store brings up additional issues, owing to the greater complexity of desktop applications versus mobile ones. For example, apps that require the user’s administrator password are forbidden, which excludes many types of legitimate system utilities from the store.

Apps must also use the Mac App Store’s built-in download mechanism to deliver software updates, which creates a chicken-and-egg problem: Many developers have already built their own update-delivery mechanisms into their software precisely because nothing like the Mac App Store existed before now. Those features will now have to be removed, and the update mechanisms redesigned, before the apps can be sold through Apple’s store.

But pricing seems to be the chief complaint. Some developers worry that the Mac App Store will create a “race to the bottom,” driving application prices down to the levels of the iOS App Store, where full-featured programs routinely sell for $5 or less. Others complain that the store does not support upgrade pricing, and that there’s no sensible way to maintain more than one major version of a product on the store at the same time.

Sales start with salesmanship

So why put up with it? While it’s true that the Mac App Store developer license comes with restrictions similar to its iOS counterpart, unlike with the iPhone and iPad, the Mac App Store won’t be the only way to get applications onto your Mac. Developers who disagree with Apple’s terms can simply opt out. Why allow Apple to dictate the terms of the market when you don’t have to — particularly when there’s no real evidence of consumer demand for a desktop app store to begin with?

The answer, quite plainly, is that Apple has shown that it’s very, very good at online software distribution. In December, the 300 most popular free apps in the iOS App Store generated more than 300 million downloads per day, according to app store monitoring company Distimo. The top paid apps averaged around 350,000 downloads per day.

Compare that to Google’s Android Market. Overall, though Android’s share of the smartphone market is climbing, Android app sales remain much softer than iOS app sales. Even after an overhaul in December, developers are unsatisfied with the Android Market’s front-facing UI, which can be hard to navigate and limits the amount of descriptive text for apps.

Worse, however, are the back-end problems. Early on, developers complained that apps would disappear from the Android Market and that download counts were reported incorrectly. Even after the latest updates, the store offers little in the way of download charts or analytics, payment processing is cumbersome for sellers, and the download process for users is failure-prone.

That Google has not moved to address these problems more rapidly is telling. It suggests that Google is offering Android app downloads as an online service, one it runs the same way it does Gmail, Google Apps, and its other offerings — some of which have languished in extended beta phases. By comparison, Apple is running its app stores not as a mere download service, but as an online retail platform backed by the full reputation of the Apple brand. Little wonder, then, that browsing the Apple store feels like shopping in an Apple retail store, while browsing the Android Market feels like cruising the aisles at Wal-Mart.

Enter the 800-pound gorilla: Amazon.com

That’s why I was intrigued by last week’s announcement of the Amazon Appstore for Android. Unlike iOS devices, most Android handsets aren’t limited to downloading apps from the Android Market. That creates the opportunity for competition, not just in the market for Android devices, but between online software distribution channels as well.

Unlike the current Android Market, the Amazon Appstore will be a curated marketplace. Apps will be reviewed for offensive content, respect for users’ privacy, and overall software quality — much like Apple does for its App Store. While this does place restrictions on developers, it also emulates Apple’s model, in which only products of reasonable value are deemed fit for sale. (Most brick-and-mortar retailers use the same model.)

More important, Amazon.com is already the Web’s leading retail platform. As such, Amazon.com vendors have access to a variety of sales tools, ranging from detailed product pages to Amazon.com’s sophisticated recommendation engine. Buyers will also be able to shop from their home PCs to enjoy the full Amazon.com browsing experience — which they can’t do with the Android Market — and they will benefit from Amazon.com’s widely lauded customer service.

These are precisely the type of advantages that desktop app stores need to offer if they hope to succeed. The Android Market has proven that “build it and they will come” doesn’t fly with software markets. Instead of a mere download service, software stores must be full retail experiences. Apple knows how to provide that, and so does Amazon.com. If the competition continues to drive innovation, software developers may soon find that app stores have graduated from being a necessary evil to being an actual sales advantage.

This article, “Mac App Store: Blueprint for the software retailer of tomorrow?,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Track the latest developments in programming at InfoWorld.com, and for the latest in business techonology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.