Direct download as a bargaining chip
In the closing paragraph of my Mac App Store follow-up post, I suggested that eventually most developers will exclusively distribute through the App Store. John Brayton, the developer of CloudPull for Google Docs backup, called this out on Twitter:
"Good post, but disagree that selling outside the MAS won't be worthwhile. IMHO we should be using our own stores as bargaining chip."
In a thread to the MacSB mailing list, John has a related version of this reasoning:
"Selling independently provides protection against Mac App Store policy decisions that could affect my app. If Apple decides tomorrow to kick me out of the Mac App Store, I would take a hit but I would still be able to sell my app."
I couldn't agree more, to both points. There may be some advantages to going App Store-only — less initial setup for checkout and licensing, no confusion about which version to buy, or where to upgrade — but indie Mac developers should be doing everything they can to control their own destiny. Having your own store is just good business sense.
June 26, 2011 09:52 AM [link] -
