Apple reported 1 million apps downloaded from its Mac App Store in its first day of release. How will Google and Microsoft respond?
Apple announced Jan. 7 that 1 million apps had been downloaded from the Mac
App Store. The question now is: How will its competitors respond?
"We're amazed at the incredible response the Mac App Store is getting,"
Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in a Jan. 7
statement. "Developers have done a great job bringing apps to the store
and users are loving how easy and fun the [store] is."
The Mac App Store launched Jan. 6 with more than 1,000 free and paid
applications, including the always-popular Angry Birds and more
productivity-centric programming, such as Autodesk. By porting its
mobile-applications model to the PC, Apple hoped to attract users interested in
downloading smaller programs with just one click, as well as third-party
developers looking for a new platform for their products. Apple has full
control over the software listed in its store via its usual review process,
although developers can continue to distribute any Mac-supported software
independently of the store.
Mac App Store requires Snow Leopard, specifically Mac OS X v.10.6.6 with a
software update, and will be fully integrated into Mac OS X 10.7 Lion,
currently in development.
Less than 24 hours after the Mac App Store's launch, though, reports emerged
of security loopholes, in particular for applications that declined to follow
Apple's recommendations about the app checking for a valid store
receipt.
Lack of receipt validation could make it easier to pirate applications.
Some early-stage kinks aside, the Mac App Store launch managed to draw its
share of attention away from the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, where
Apple was a conspicuous non-presence. In the longer-term, though, Apple's
rivals may feel duty-bound to respond to the Mac App Store's success with
initiatives of their own.
Google already has something underway with the Chrome Web Store, which
offers 2,000 apps and 10,000 extensions and themes. Google Docs, Google Reader,
Google Maps, Amazon Window Shop and TweetDeck are but a few of the ones that
eWEEK's
Clint Boulton recently downloaded onto his Google Chrome-based Cr-48 test
notebook. Other apps include CityVille, Rhapsody, and news feeds such as
USA Today and
The New York Times.
As the company with the largest share of the "traditional," or
desktop-and-laptop-bound, operating system market, Microsoft is likely mulling
the possibilities of response. During CES, Microsoft executives announced that
the next version of Windows will support SoC (system-on-a-chip) architecture,
in particular ARM-based systems from
partners such as Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas Instruments. In theory, that would
allow Windows to appear on a broader range of smaller and lighter form-factors.
During a Jan. 5 press conference, Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows
and Windows Live Division, and others demonstrated how Windows could run on
native ARM architecture with little evident
slowdown. "New version of Internet Explorer running ARM,
hardware accelerated," Michael Angiulo, a corporate vice president for
Microsoft, said as he demonstrated applications on a laptop with an Nvidia
Tegra chip. "'Iron Man' trailer in high definition, running natively on an
ARM chip."
For months,
rumors
have circulated that the next version of Windows will include ultra-fast
booting, a "Microsoft Store" for downloading apps, and fuller
cloud integration-all features more reminiscent of a smartphone or mobile
device than of a traditional PC. Those rumors, in conjunction with Microsoft's
announced support for ARM chips, hint that a
Microsoft app store could be in the works. But given the longer time-frame
needed for both the next version of Windows and working out the ARM-associated
engineering kinks, such an app store might not appear for years.
In the meantime, the ability to download apps onto a laptop seems to be an
Apple and Google game.
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