An iTunes iPhone App Store for the rest of us…
Filed under Apple, Software on March 7th, 2008
The iTunes iPhone “App Store” (besides being a mouthful) is the official way for third party iPhone apps to be distributed and installed on the iPhone.
Briefly, application developers get to upload their app to Apple, and have it distributed and sold thru a special section on the iTunes Store. Apple take cares of transactions, bandwidth, hosting et al, in exchange for 30% of the profits.
Now, here’s my idea: wouldn’t it be great if something like this existed for common OS X apps?
Application repositories are nothing new. Linux distributions like Gentoo, Ubunty, Debian et al rely on them. Even on the Mac we have MacPorts and the Fink project providing a vast selection of Open Source applications for one click (or, ahem, one shell command) installation.
Apple already maintains a listing of OS X applications (with download links). Why not turn this listing into a full-on software repository, with the ability to search for an application, purchase it and have it download and install on your Mac? A seamless, dead easy experience that will blow Windows application installing (and even Linux’s somewhat arcane package management facilities) in the dust.
Such a system should be tied with the Software Update mechanism, so you can have minor updates delivered automatically. That would also be a boon to security (and even major, paid updates, if you choose so). And how about including a proper uninstaller, at least for apps installed thru this system?
(The only problem with such a solution would the Apple’s commission. Unlike on the iPhone, I don’t see the 30% premium sustainable here. In order for ISVs to opt-in it would have to be a small enough percentage, akin to what payment gateways already charge).
I this it’s entirely doable.
What do you think?
