With news of an App Store to be available for the Mac, Apple has released an official list of guidelines for submission, and developers are starting to ask some very interesting questions.
The Mac App Store looks like it’s going to mirror the iOS remarkably closely, in fact some of the submission guidelines sound like they were just copied and pasted word for word, which brings some good and some sides to this debate. The thing to keep in mind is that this will not be the only way to get apps on your Mac, rather just a curated set by Apple, you’ll still be able to download all the things you want from your regular sources.
Here’s a list of some of the guidelines, from TUAW. Your app will be rejected if it has any of the following:
- It is a “beta,” “demo,” “trial,” or “test” version
- It duplicates apps already in the App Store, particularly if there are many of them
- The developer is “spamming” the App Store with many versions of similar apps. You will also be removed from the Developer Program if this occurs.
- It is not packaged and submitted using Apple’s packaging technologies included in Xcode – No third party installers are allowed.
- It requires license keys or implements its own copy protection
- It spawns processes that continue to run after a user has quit the app without user consent
- It has metadata that mentions the name of any other computer platform
- It uses location-based APIs to control vehicles, aircraft, or other devices
- It uses location-based APIs for dispatch, fleet management, or emergency services
- It has misspelled Apple product names in its name
- It looks similar to Apple Products or apps bundled on the Mac, including the Finder, iChat, iTunes, and Dashboard
- Your user interface is “complex or less than very good”
- It changes the native user interface elements or behaviors of Mac OS X
- It creates a store inside itself for selling or distributing other software
- Your game portrays realistic images of people or animals being killed or maimed, shot, stabbed, tortured, or injured.
- “Enemies” within the context of your game solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity.
- It contains user generated content that is frequently pornographic
The big problem with this list, and the other restrictions, is that it prevents a number of standard tactics associated with Mac apps: no demos or trial periods, no cheap upgrades for recent purchasers, no bulk licensing, no education discounts, no violent videogames (ha!), forced to meet Apple’s UI guidelines, no severe tweaking of MacOS, and the list goes on. Some devs are less than happy at the prospect of losing 30% of the income, too.
On the flip side, distribution, upgrades, and installing are all heavily streamlined. It also probably makes an easy jump for iOS devs to get into Mac development, as is happening with Flight Control.
Check out some of the developer responses.
The key thing to take away from this is that no one is forcing you to purchase apps from this service, or to develop on it. Think of it like Apple’s list of downloadable apps — it’s not the be all and end all, rather a curated list of things you know will have certain limitations, but also be of a certain level of quality.
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