Developers Setting Expectations Ahead of Mac App Store Launch
With Apple's Mac App Store set to debut in just two days, developers are beginning to set expectations for their applications, particularly in comparison to their other applications already available through the iOS App Store. On his blog The Pocket Cyclone, developer Markus Nigrin shares the results of a discussion he recently held with several other prominent iOS App Store developers moving their apps to the Mac App Store in the first wave of releases.
For the most part, Nigrin's results show that iOS developers moving their apps to the Mac App Store are looking to maintain their existing price points, which frequently fall in the $1.99-$4.99 price range.
Why does a 1:1 adoption of the price on the Mac seem so natural for iOS devs?
For once, Apple made the code re-use for a native Mac app very straightforward. Every dev I talked to mentioned porting times of less than four weeks. Which were mostly spent on all types of adjustments, like keyboard and HD support. Also, graphical assets for mobile games are typically originated at a much higher resolution anyway, as everybody in the iOS world needs to prepare for a foreseeable future of HD displays. The point is, if you already have the assets and re-creating a native Mac app is relatively low-cost, there is no immediate pressure to go with another pricing model on this platform, if the reward could be an early (chart) success.
As far as expectations for sales units go, developers seem to be split, with several of the surveyed developers offering conservative estimates of only 10% of that seen for the corresponding iOS titles, while others have pushed their expectations to as high as double that seen on the iOS platform. Sales splits between iOS and Mac versions will obviously vary based on a wide range of criteria, including the usefulness of certain types of apps on the two platforms and the overall user experience, where some apps may see more benefit than others in either the portable multi-touch environment of iOS or the larger-screen, pointer-driven Mac environment.
Popular Stories
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories, according to the Apple leaker and prototype collector known as "Kosutami." In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami explained that Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories due to its poor durability. The company may move to another non-leather material for its premium accessories in the future. Kosutami has revealed...
Apple Vision Pro, Apple's $3,500 spatial computing device, appears to be following a pattern familiar to the AR/VR headset industry – initial enthusiasm giving way to a significant dip in sustained interest and usage. Since its debut in the U.S. in February 2024, excitement for the Apple Vision Pro has noticeably cooled, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Writing in his latest Power On...
