Following a few weeks of rumour and speculation, Apple has announced that it'll be launching its Mac App Store for OSX on January 6.
In an uncharacteristically restrained statement free of excess hyperbole, Steve Jobs noted that "the App Store revolutionized mobile apps. We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun".
The desktop client - which will be available to anyone running Snow Leopard - will be a fairly accurate facsimile of its mobile counterpart. Shoppers will be able to browse through different categories of programs and quickly install them with a single click. Customer ratings and reviews will also be integrated, as well as lists of new and noteworthy apps. To make the service easy to use, the software will handle all of the updates automatically and any purchased programs can be shared between each of a user's personal Macs.
As with the mobile App Store, developers will be able to keep 70 per cent of the revenue of any paid apps, and won't have to pay for hosting, credit card fees or marketing costs. Free apps can be hosted at no cost.
The only thing that isn't clear is how much of the mobile marketplace's rules and restrictions will transfer over to the desktop. Despite relaxing its guidelines recently, Apple is still notoriously strict on which apps it will allow into its shop.
The timing of the launch seems a little unusual, since it falls on the first day of CES. Although this would be a perfect time for most companies to launch a product, Apple tends to shy away from the crowds in favour of its own private events. The App Store also risks getting lost in the myriad other announcements that will be pouring out of Las Vegas that week.
Although the company was expected to open its new shop at around this time anyway, it's also possible that the launch was brought up to try and pre-empt the release of the Cydia App Store, which is believed to launch "within weeks".
