Comments on: This App Is Your App

By: David Bressler

David Bressler — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:52:51 +0000

I’m somewhat technically astute, but like the convenience of the App Store. It’s not perfect, but it will get better. I appreciate this solution, as it makes sense, now that I know what’s going on. Thanks for the explanation.

David

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 20:05:49 +0000

I’d like to reinforce Chucky’s point — until Apple resolves the issues you’re trying to solve for your customers (kudos deserved), I won’t be (and haven’t been) doing business with the MAS — I’ve never even logged into it. Hopefully, the Apps I use on a daily basis (including two of yours) will continue to offer direct download and either use the Sparkle framework to let me know about updates or have their updates announced by email or in sites that appear in my many NetNewsWire feeds.

By: Chucky

Chucky — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:14:44 +0000

This seems a sensible solution for your MAS customers.

Just make sure you don’t forget about customers who actually prefer not doing business through the AppStoreMonster…

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:23:23 +0000

Seth, I agree from the user’s perspective this would be ideal. However, some realities of the App Store make this difficult or impossible:

1. Apple will not update an application unless it contains a code signature, signed by Apple, that could only have been generated by Apple when the customer downloaded a MAS app.

2. Some developers, by choice or by force (myself included), are using different bundle IDs for the MAS version and direct-download versions. This means that preferences will not automatically be shared, and worse, that Apple has no means of identifying that the existing app the user downloaded from me is approximately the same as an MAS edition that they sell.

I have some bug reports in to Apple that suggest some ways that this could be made more streamlined. We’ll see how Apple evolves the system in the long term.

By: Seth A. Roby

Seth A. Roby — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:11:59 +0000

Why do the apps need to be kept separate? If I get 3.0 from the MAS and then direct-download 3.01, I can replace the app store version with the new version (it’ll ask for admin privileges, of course). The prefs should sync, the receipt should already be stashed, and everything should be fine. When 3.01 hits the MAS it should note that I already have it and not bother me with the download, but if it does it’ll replace one copy of 3.01 with another with stricter permissions; no harm done. When a newer version than I have hits the MAS I should get it in the download list. Right?