macformat investigat es
Not everybody is happy with Apple’s Mac App Store. We investigate why…
Does the Mac App Store need an overhaul?
Launched in 2011, the Mac App Store quickly became an integral part of the Macowning experience, providing easy access to thousands of apps and merging seamlessly into macOS itself. Almost all the most important apps are found on the Mac App Store, but there have always been some notable exceptions – Adobe in particular has apps that are famously absent. Regardless, if you’re looking for an app, the Mac App Store is the place you start your search, mainly because it’s so convenient: you’ve probably agreed to Apple’s Ts&Cs and given them your credit card details, so there are no risks regarding the security of your payment information. You can also trust that the App Store team has reviewed the software you’re installing, so there will be no nasty virus or adware hiding within the app itself. Many of these factors can make it much easier for you to make a purchase from a company that you haven’t heard of before. Essentially, the App Store experience offers you many of the same benefits as purchasing boxed software from a retail store.
However, all is not well within Apple’s one-stop shop. A gaggle of third-party developers have recently upped sticks in favour of their own app store. All this has us wondering if we’re about to see some major changes to the Mac App Store.
“At the very beginning of the Mac App Store, Apple promised to set a high bar for applications in quality and design,” explains Oleksandr Kosovan of Setapp, expressing some of his frustrations. “But what we see today is that they actually made barriers for most major applications and set no limitations to the poorest quality apps. The Store is now flooded with low-quality apps and copycats. I think this is the area where Apple could improve things a lot.”
Another problem for developers is getting through Apple’s opaque review process; the developers behind Flume recently found that their app had been rejected due to a random reassessment that claimed it broke the rules because it uploaded to Instagram. This was despite being previously accepted, along with other apps that did the same thing. After repeated requests for clarity on the exact rules being broken, Apple failed to reply. It was treatment like this that led them to abandon the Mac App Store altogether and choose Setapp (setapp.com) instead. Unlike the Mac App Store, Setapp is a subscription service. Once you’ve signed up you can download any of the apps on the Setapp service, which cover most categories.
“With Setapp, you don’t buy a cat in the bag. You can have a free month trial and can use any of the applications on Setapp without any limitations. It is a great way to discover new apps. All the apps are the highest quality, fully functional and include the latest version.
Unfortunately, Apple has a rather opaque review process
You don’t have to worry that you bought the wrong application due to lack of trial or misleading communication from some tricky developers,” says Oleksandr.
Feeling optimistic
Developers have found ways to work around Apple’s restrictions. For example, the App Store doesn’t allow trial versions of apps to be downloaded, but apps like OmniFocus and OmniGraffle do appear on the Store as trials.
We asked Ken Case, CEO of Omnigroup, how it gets around the restriction: “The App Store doesn’t allow ‘trial apps’, but it does allow free trials of in-app purchases – and there have actually been examples of entertainment apps with free trials of their in-app purchases in the App Store for years, from Netflix to Pandora to Candy Crush. Some of those apps are actually completely useless without a subscription, but Apple has a specific exclusion in their rules for apps which offer subscriptions.
“We could have chosen to offer our apps with a subscription as well (as some other productivity apps have recently done),” continues Ken. “But we prefer the traditional sales model for productivity tools where you make a one-time investment and then choose to upgrade that investment when you think the new functionality being offered is worth additional money, rather than the rental model where you have to pay every month to continue to access your own documents in the software you’ve been using.”
The key to making OmniGroup’s apps pass App Store review was to make sure each app had truly useful functionality even when people didn’t make additional purchases. “In this case, the free functionality we offer is the ability for our apps to view their own documents without requiring a purchase, much like a PDF reader,” explains Ken.
There are plenty of things Ken would love to see improved on the Mac App Store, of course: for example, “right now there isn’t any way for a developer to indicate that in-app purchases should be eligible for Family Sharing or the Volume Purchase Programs (for business and educational institutions). But I’m optimistic that those changes (and more) will come with time!”
While some developers are clearly unhappy with Apple’s Mac App Store it seems that most are happy for now.
“I know that behind the scenes they’re constantly working to improve the App Store,” says Ken, “and we’ve seen them roll out a number of improvements over the past year – the most recent big change being the ability for app developers to respond to feedback left by customers in reviews.”
At MacFormat, we’d say that better navigation and search facilities are are at the top of our wishlist for a better Mac App Store. Let’s hope Apple is listening!
Third-party developers have recently developed their own app store