There have been fast and furious rumors around a “Mac App Store” for the flagship OSX platform. I’ll get this right out of the way now: I personally do not like totally closed systems. Although Steve Jobs left a cryptic “nope” to an email question about the subject, it’s entirely possible a mac app store IS coming, just not one that locks down the platform completely.
A Mac App Store doesn’t have to lock it down to change computing anyway, and I think it would at least double the Apple computer share of the market.
Although controls will be in that store, like the current iTunes/iPhone/iPad store, I think it’ll be a boon for developers, especially the small ones who happen to get instant visibility.
As much as I don’t like the notion of control, I realize it’s a veritable money machine. Steve Jobs is making computing like using a toaster: you put in the bread, hit a button, and voila, toast of your choice at one of predetermined temperature settings (because Steve knows the settings that MOST people like their toast at).
Why? Because to most people, these things we call “computers” are just tools. Every day I deal with people who call blog posts “articles.” Or even don’t know that what they’re reading is a blog. The average computer user doesn’t care about what us power users do.
Sure, there’s people like me, who need to make the bread that goes in the toaster. You can’t use a toaster to make the bread itself; so there will always be the need for the high-power platform. The app developers, too, make bread, so they need the power too. But there will be a day that most people are using computers that have a much more controlled environment than others and enjoy it because of their lack of perceived security woes, and when they turn it on, it just runs. Because they want to make toast.
I’ve had multiple friends switch to the mac based on sheer boot time alone. I turn on my mac, and it goes; their off-the-shelf PCs are taking minutes and I’m up in one or less. That “feature” alone I’ve witnessed first hand alone has motivated hundreds of dollars of premium dollars going to Apple.
Why will this work? Because with their mobile devices, Apple has found that people like not having to think about using the tool. As a person I highly respect, Merlin Mann of 43folders says in relation to optimal tools to get something done, “it’s just a cup.” One of his illustrations of achieving the true zen of productivity is not thinking about which cup you’re going to put your morning coffee in; you just grab your cup and use it to drink coffee. That’s the “pain point” non-enthusiasts have with computers. People are too busy worrying about their cup (the ins and outs of running the computer), and it gets in the way of drinking coffee (getting work done).
Whoever reduces computing to Merlins’ definition of a cup, wins.
And if you can make your product or service that toaster or cup in your space, you’ll win too.
