Even for those users who have been buy and downloading software package on their own for years , the Mac App Store ’s hope of permit code banishment , convenient multi - Mac licenses , and effortless one - click facility are heavy to ignore .
There ’s just one problem . If you ’ve compile a accumulation of Mac software over time , Apple does n’t tender a fashion to plough your exist app licenses into Mac App Store equivalent — and so far it has render no intention of changing its melodic phrase .
A few Mac developer are riding to the deliverance , however . A handful are finding ways to help users make the transition from the software they ’ve already bought to the versions available via the Mac App Store . It ’s an supporting turn of event , but one that ’s unlikely to swing its fashion across the Mac platform . For some developer , the method for proceed their subsist client to the Mac App Store simply are n’t well-founded .
Victoria Wang is distributing free Mac App Store coupons to people who previously bought her Twitter client, Hibari, directly from her.
The bridge
Victoria Wang is distributing free Mac App Store coupons to mass who antecedently bought her Twitter client , Hibari , directly from her .
Over the retiring week or so , developers behind a fistful of apps — many of them evenhandedly newfangled to the market — have announced go to transition client licenses into the Mac App Store . Those apps let in Mizage ’s windowpane direction utilityDivvy ; Irraddiated Software ’s Divvy competition , Cinch ; and Victoria Wang’sHibariTwitter client .
Mizage and Irraddiated are using similar techniques : both companies send out e - mails explaining that if exist client re - buy the several apps and submit a proof of purchase ( either by forwarding a Mac App Store reception or send a screenshot of the store ’s Purchases tab ) , they ’ll issue a refund for the original licence purchase .
Victoria Wang is distributing free Mac App Store coupons to people who previously bought her Twitter client, Hibari, directly from her.
Wang , on the other hand , is going the coupon route . Like its iOS equivalent , the Mac App Store allows developers to give out 50 detached - app coupons for each edition of their app . Wang asked interested customers to e - mail her to verify they bought Hibari outside the Mac App Store . She will then supply them one of her mete out coupons ( thus avoiding the 30 percent hit from the repayment and re - leverage process , due to Apple ’s cut ) . Wang also suppose that if she has to , she ’ll create a wait lean for pass on out coupons with the next version update .
Tyler Bunnell , co - owner and developer at Mizage , says that his party has switch about 500 survive Divvy permit into the Mac App Store . After Apple ’s 30 - percent take , each swap of a full - price license costs Mizage about $ 4.20 . However , since many people corrupt Divvy on some variety of sales event or promotion , Bunnell reckon the average cost per switch is closer to $ 3.75 . Mizage first e - mailed client on January 28 and received an initial deluge of responses that take advantage of its fling . Now , Bunnell says requests have “ fairly much give way down , ” and the ship’s company sees perhaps one or two each day .
Mizage , makers of windowpane utility Divvy , is volunteer repayment to exist customer who purchase the app again via the Mac App Store .
Mizage, makers of window utility Divvy, is offering refunds to existing customers who buy the app again via the Mac App Store.
A few other developers have also tender a window of chance for customers who wish to transition into the Mac App Store . Pixelmator , for example , has enacted a “ transitional ” price cut from $ 60 to $ 30 that ’s been in effect since the storehouse ’s January porta , and it famouslymade $ 1 million in just 20 day . Developer Oleg Krupnov lately put his $ 20DaisyDiskstorage public utility company on a 24 - hour sales agreement for just $ 5 . On the more permanent close of the spectrum , Sophiestication Software change the cost of its CoverSutra iTunes accountant from about $ 18 to $ 5 , and Conceited Software also lowered the received toll of itsLinkinusIRC client from $ 28 to $ 6 .
But Mizage , Irraddiated , and Wang are among the few developers that offer full license swop to their intact exist customer bases . And agree to several other developersMacworldspoke with , there are a telephone number of good reasons for that .
The chasm
Divvy , Cinch , and Hibari are novel enough to the market that it ’s deserving the time and tax income hit to their respective developer to help customers transition into the Mac App Store . recall : on top of all the tedious make-work that offers like these create , Mizage and Irraddiated are going lose 30 per centum on each ( re-)sale that they help process . However , the Mac App Store potentially offers better vulnerability , give those developers a fortune to make up the money they fall behind by trade more copies of their apps .
Unsurprisingly , none of the developers of more conventional apps that spoke toMacworldwanted to go on track record with their answers . But for apps that have been around for a while , the consensus among developers is that doing a full license swop is just not potential .
For one thing , Apple does n’t reserve almost enough voucher codes to cover the put in base of apps which have been around for year . And even for large shop class that might arguably have the work force to process the swaps , the process would be extremely complex and time consuming . Plus , as a couple developers pointed out , credit card CPU incline to get spook well , and they have a penchant for cutting merchants off if they see sudden flare-up of refund . cast away in the inevitable plotter and the prospects of 30 per centum of sales from the last couple of years extend up in smoke , and even Lando Calrissian would n’t signal on for this mickle .
The outlook
If you ’re just die to shift your existing licenses into the Mac App Store , you may largely be out of luck in good order now . But developers are very mindful of the situation , and they ’re paying a circle of attention to how this all unfurls .
While there is a turn trend for new apps to adopt the Mac App Store as their undivided point of sale , most established developers who have go into the store are maintain disjoined interlingual rendition of their apps . And even some of those who are go Mac App Store only , such as Pixelmator , are still extend demos of their apps via their caller sites .
It ’s deserving keeping in mind that though many customers maywantto passage their live licenses into the Mac App Store , there really is n’t much of a technicalneedfor the vast majority of them to do so . Most apps update automatically on their own these day , and users who in person own and apply more than a Mac or two ( the distinctive chasteness hold by most traditional software licenses ) are bound cases .
For those who really want to move to an all Mac App Store life-style , it might be good to wait for your favourite apps to get major upgrades in the store . With any luck , developers may hold a sales agreement to lionise the launch and entice non - App Store customers to grease one’s palms in . no matter , the purchase ( well , 70 percent of it ) will still go to a worthy grounds — endorse the grow third - political party Mac developer ecosystem .
