Unlike iOS4, no demos for Mac App Store
The processes and rules that will govern the new App Store for Mac software are firming up with every Apple memo on the subject. The latest is that there will be no software demos in the new App Store.
The new Apple App Store for Mac software products is expected to open for business near the end of January 2011, and Apple is including notes about it in its “News and Announcements for Apple Developers” newsletter. The latest of these bulletins contains quite a lot of information, with at east one surprise: the will be no demos of software allowed in the Mac App store. Specifically, Apple says, “Your website is the best place to provide demos, trial versions, or betas of your software for customers to explore,. The apps you submit to be reviewed for the Mac App Store should be fully functional, retail versions of your apps.”
In other words, unlike the iOS4 App Store for iPhone and iPad, there will be no demo versions of software allowed in the new Mac App Store. Why? Again, quoting from the developer newsletter, “This avoids being confused when applications store data in unexpected areas of the system (e.g., storing databases in the user’s Documents folder or storing files in the user’s Library folder that are not recognizably associated with your application).” This is simple recognition, one guesses, that OS X and Macs are just a tad more complicated than is iOS4 and Apple does not want the works gummed up with demos from their own store.
A few other tidbits about the new store were included in the Apple bulletin. Some examples: Mac apps submitted to the App Store must ensure that files are written in the appropriate location and developers can create custom controls for their apps as long as those controls comply with Apple design standards. Apple is expected to issue a formal set of rules for the Mac App Store before it opens next year, similar to the one which governs iOS4 App Store policy.
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