Let's Roll
I followed a link from Gruber to a tweet by Steven Frank that said this:
"Scenario: Apple makes code-signing mandatory for desktop Mac applications. You can now only buy them through iTunes. Think it can't happen?"
A little ways up Gruber links to Paul Kafasis' Inside iPhone article One Little Article where he discusses the difference between Apple having "an" App store that people use to buy apps for the iPhone as opposed to "the" App store for buying iPhone apps. The difference, as Paul points out, is huge.
I've been asking developers lately if they'd want the App store to start selling apps for their Mac and most are enthusiastic about the possibility. But they look at a Mac targeting app store as being in the model of buying music for your Mac. That app store is only "an" app store. It's only one of many places you can get apps for you Mac. That's a future they can get excited about. Many would love to see Apple give them a channel and take care of processing credit cards, distribution, and pushing updates.
They don't want the iPhone version. That's the "the" App store approach that Frank is cautioning against.
Think it can't happen?
At one point I would have weighed in and said "it can't happen" but the Apple that can keep the SDK under NDA and deny apps access to the iPhone market because they compete with Apple products could very well tighten down the channel for distributing apps on a Mac.
The "Let's Rock" event this week may have sounded like it was all about new iPods and a new version of iTunes but it was really about channel. It was about how much of the market is controlled by the iPod and how they can leverage it. And as I replayed the press conference at high speed these two thoughts linked arms. In two months, the App store has served up one hundred million apps. And after a year of being gone from the platform, NBC is back.
I'm often an unapologetic Apple fan-boy, but these two thoughts together gave me a chill. Even though there are other ways for NBC to get their shows on Macs, PCs, and iPods, they (depending on who you believe) accepted Apple's terms and came back to iTunes.
If we get "an" App store for Mac OS X, that will be awfully cool. If we get "the" App store then the landscape completely changes and the question will be whether or not you want to target this platform or not under these new rules.
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Given what Apple just did to the iPhone/Touch application "Podcaster" in the App Store, I don't think that the conflict of interest between Apple and its customers is too great.
As Gruber notes, Apple did not permit Podcaster in the App Store because it "duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes." Hogwash. The app provides a functionality that iTunes does not; it allows me to cut the cord completely to my computer and stream/download podcasts directly to my Touch.
Fortunately, the developer has given copies of the software through his developer license in exchange for a $10 donation. I jumped at the opportunity. If you're interested, you can chase a link through Gruber's blog entry to see if he still has any more slots available.
I've found only one function that Podcaster can't do: it doesn't slave appropriately to my car stereo. When my iPod Touch is slaved to my car stereo, iTunes is launched; podcasts that are stored in Podcaster are inaccessible. Oh, well.
OTOH, it is wonderful(!) to be able to download and play podcasts without having to sync through my computer.
An ORA blogger talked about the issue here.
If Apple does extend the functionality of iTunes to allow downloads directly to my iPod Touch, wonderful. I won't regret my $10 expenditure to get a jump-start on that functionality. If this application functionality truly overlapped with iTunes, then the marketplace would determine that it was superfluous and not buy it. This is the first time I'm truly unhappy with a decision that Apple has made around the App Store.
Apple needs to Get It Right here before they even think of restricting applications to signed ones on the Macs.
This 'could' be done on Windows as well. Hell, it's easier because Microsoft already has a whole signing thing setup already, at least for drivers.
I highly agree that "the app store" for the iPhone is disturbing. Part of the reason that I have no interest in an iPhone.. (The other part is that I have no interest in ATT)
As for the TV offerings, I find that the traditional Flash based TV sites are a pain. I would rather have a quality download that I don't have to watch on a browser. In that model, iTunes is the only offering I care about for TV.
For now, the iTunes Apps/Music/Media model brings mixed feelings.