WWDC Prediction: Mac App Store

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:28:17 -0700

Since the iPhone app store debuted, there has been speculation that Apple may introduce a similar app store for Mac OS X applications.

I really started thinking about this when I saw a 2008 tweet from Steven Frank:

Scenario: Apple makes code-signing mandatory for desktop Mac applications. You can now only buy them through iTunes. Think it can't happen?

The discussions over email, over Twitter, or over beers have ranged from the skeptical "It'll never happen" to the paranoid "OMG OMG."

But now, I'm beginning to think that it's really going to happen, perhaps with an announcement at next week's WWDC to start the ball rolling. And it might be a good thing.

So what if Steve Jobs supposedly denied that there would be an app store for the Mac? You know that Apple is never straight about its future plans. Many times before, Apple (or Steve) has denied the existence of strategies or products, only to introduce it a few months later.

Here is why I think the Mac app store idea is ripe to happen. First, there's the removal of the link to the Apple downloads page from Apple's website. You can still get there from the  menu, and they are maintaining the page again after a bit of a mysterious hiatus, but the page and its family are clearly not being "pushed" by Apple.