Search on the App Store and Mac App Store allows customers to find apps, games, stories, categories, in-app purchases, and developers. Searches use app and in-app purchase metadata from your product page to deliver the most relevant results. We’re constantly evolving how search works to serve the best results to customers’ queries. Apps from the Mac App Store: Applications you install from the Mac App Store are considered the most trustworthy, as they’ve gone through an Apple vetting process and are hosted by Apple themselves. They’re also sandboxed, although this is a reason why many app developers don’t use the Mac App Store.
The App Store is a safe and trusted place for customers to discover apps, and a great opportunity for developers to deliver apps and services across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch in 175 regions. Find articles, guidelines, and other resources to help you design incredible apps, reach more users, and grow your business. While the Mac is a little more open than iOS - the only way to get third party apps onto your iPhone and iPad is to download them from the iOS App Store - there are still a lot of hoops to jump.
Developers targeting macOS aren’t depending on the Mac App Store to sell their products, despite Apple engaging in more aggressive outreach to those creators over the past year.
That’s the conclusion of the fourth annual SetappMac Developers Survey (PDF), which queried 812 Mac app developers aboutdistribution, monetization, and more. The big takeaway: Only 21 percent ofdevelopers sell via the Mac App Store only, versus 32 percent who sell theirapps outside of it, and 47 percent who use a combination of Mac App Store andoutside channels.
Moreover, some 58 percent of developers’ collective revenue comes from outside the Mac App Store, versus 42 percent via the Store itself. That makes sense, the report added, “considering the 30 percent revshare with the Mac App Store.” Also, nearly two-thirds (62 percent) thought that Apple’s slice of revenue was far too high.
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If these numbers echo the broader sentiment of Mac appbuilders, that’s a potential problem for Apple, which is trying to introduceits developer community to the idea (and eventual benefits) of cross-platformapps via the Mac App Store. With the arrival of macOS Catalina and Xcode 11, wehave Catalyst, the cross-platform tool for iPad and macOS; clicking a fewbuttons in Xcode will translate an iPad app to the macOS environment with(supposedly!) a minimum of work.
Mac Developer Account
In theory, a cross-platform app-builder could boost the Mac App Store, which is anemic compared to the iOS App Store when it comes to available apps and general consumer activity. However, a Dice survey from earlier this year suggested that developers don’t really care about Apple’s cross-platform offerings:
Mac App Store Developer Guidelines
It’s still early days for Catalyst and cross-platform apps,though, and it’ll be interesting to see if Apple can persuade developers toport their iOS apps to macOS. A big part of that could come down to revenue;developers might appreciate the convenience of an app store (especially if thatstore can help highlight their product in a crowded marketplace), but theyreally don’t like shelling out a big chunk of their revenue for the privilege.If Apple adjusts its revenue split for macOS, will more developers jumponboard?