When it comes to the App Store and the Mac App Store, the two software dispensing platforms are not treated equally.
Not only do top 10 Mac App Store apps make a whole lot less than the chart toppers on iOS, but developers are noticing that Apple’s not even giving Mac app developers some of the same critical tools their counterparts enjoy on the App Store.
In a recent post discussing the many problems Mac App Store developers are faced with, Craig Hockenberry details how Apple treats OS X devs like second class citizens by not providing tools like TestFlight to Mac developers, which sucks for both developers and customers alike.
Apple has told developers that a Mac version of TestFlight is coming soon, but until it actually arrives, there’s no way to test apps that use iCloud servers. However, iOS developers have the option to upload an app build to Testflight to make sure everything works before it’s released.The differences between iOS and Mac App Store tools don’t just stop there though.
“Apple is touting analytics as an awesome new feature for developers that use the App Store to distribute their creations. It’s a huge benefit to our businesses, but only when you’re selling solely on iOS,” writes Hockenberry. ” Just yesterday, Apple did something great for developers. They now block reviews on beta OS releases. Unless that operating system is for the Mac.”
So there’s no TestFlight. No analytics. And no block on beta reviews. But Apple’s still taking the same 30% cut on apps released on the Mac App Store.
As yesterday’s earnings called showed, Apple is growing increasingly dependent on the iPhone to churn out huge profits. Allocating resources to improve the Mac App Store would likely come at a cost of taking precious talent away from more critical projects on iOS, which begs the question: At this point, wouldn’t it be better if Apple just gave up on the Mac App Store entirely? Developers already are.
Source: Furbo
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
10 responses to “How Apple treats Mac App Store developers like second-class citizens”
Well since one can install 3rd party software not on the Mac app store with a few clicks ,and iOS users are forced to use the App store gate keeper, the stats make sense. Its more like the Mac app store is a second class service.
I only use the mac app store to update OS X these days. It’s just a big wasteland of nothing. Apple need to do away with it.
Far from the truth. The MAS is great for putting all your app updates in one place. If the big guys would bring their apps into the App Store as well (Office, Photoshop, etc), we wouldn’t have this scattered mess of app updates to deal with. The MAS isn’t going anywhere.
I’m a developer with Mac and iOS apps. I make 65% of my revenue from the Mac. And of that, 90% of my sales come from the Mac App Store. The rest come from direct sales on my website. I would love it if Apple provided Mac app developers with the same tools as iOS app developers. It can be confusing for customers to have two different stores though. One of my customers was trying to re-install the Mac version of my app and they said they couldn’t find it. All they could see were iPhone and iPad apps. They couldn’t find Mac apps anywhere. Obviously they were using iTunes instead of the Mac App Store app. But it would be nice if perhaps there was one App Store and not separate Mac and iOS app stores.
What about Windows users that owns iPhones and no Mac computers? Why does those users need to be exposed to useless apps that won’t work on their machines… I think it is clever to have the two stores separately. It’s kinda common sense, Mac App store = for you Mac. iTunes Store = for your iOS devices.
Apple treats endusers like second class citizen to and they are the ones that keep their profits up.
Apple has to unify the stores, they have to create an Appstore section for Mac like iPad AppStore, there are so many app that you have to pay two times if you have an iPhone and a Mac, no sense
Agreed, but that is why it should be more integrated with your iCloud account. Once you purchased an app the same app should be accessible to all of your devices and computers associated with your Apple ID. I would still keep the App stores separate though. Not all iPhone users owns Macs.
I agree, i don’t know why Apple separates the payment method on its stores, since I have one Apple ID
I wish I could care about this. I don’t.