Darren Steadman

I love to speculate about why companies do certain things and what that could mean for the future of their products and services.

When I heard about the Mac App Store it got me thinking about what direction it could ultimately go in over time. I see the Mac App Store as the beginnings of a transitional phase for software on Apples laptops and desktops, it will move them towards being more like a true consumer device like the various iOS based devices. I could see in the future Apple making it a requirement that all software be delivered via the App Store. In doing so this would allow them to better lock down OSX as far as security etc was concerned. By requiring every piece of software that runs on their system to be approved and then locking down the OS as much as possible it gives them the ability to provide a platform where the consumer doesn’t have to worry about malware or viruses. At the moment this isn’t a massive issue for Apple as it is, but as they keep gaining more and more market share they could become more of a target for hackers and virus writers. By starting to implement the systems now it gives them the ability to stop the problem before it starts.

The Mac App Store could ultimately give Apple a lot of flexibility to change OSX as and when they liked without breaking things for users and developers thus the requirement by Apple for apps to only use certain APIs and OS features. This could mean that the Mac App Store is actually the enabler of the holy grail for OS designers; not having to support backwards compatibility.

I think the Mac App Store will be interesting but I also think the knock on effects of it will probably be more interesting.