Outside the Mac App Store. While the Mac App Store is the safest place for users to get software for their Mac, you may choose to distribute your Mac apps in other ways. Gatekeeper on macOS helps protect users from downloading and installing malicious software by checking for a Developer ID certificate. A legendary adventure is waiting for you The Lite version stops after visiting the hotel for the second time. Enjoy the full version by purchasing it in the Mac App Store!
Great apps for your Mac. Right there on your Mac.
The Mac App Store makes it easy to find and download Mac apps as well as widgets and extensions — like editing extensions for the new Photos app. You can browse Mac apps by category, such as games, productivity, music and more. Or do a quick search for something specific. Read descriptions and customer reviews. Flip through screenshots. When you find an app you like, click to buy it. The Mac App Store has apps for just about everything and everyone. Here are a few of our favourites.
Pages
Create beautiful documents, letters, flyers, invitations and more.
View in Mac App Store
Numbers
Make eye-catching spreadsheets and charts in just a few clicks.
View in Mac App Store
Keynote
Put together a presentation with captivating graphics and transitions.
View in Mac App Store
iBooks Author
Create stunning Multi-Touch books for iPad and Mac.
View in Mac App Store
Final Cut Pro X
Bring your film to life using revolutionary video editing software.
View in Mac App Store
Logic Pro X
Turn your Mac into a complete professional recording studio.
View in Mac App Store
Wunderlist
Manage and share your to‑do lists across all your devices. View in Mac App Store
Evernote
Take notes, save web pages, create lists, attach images and PDFs, and more. View in Mac App Store
Cobook Contacts
Find, organise and keep your contacts up to date in even easier ways. View in Mac App Store
Things
Keep track of to-dos, deadlines and projects with this task manager app. View in Mac App Store
Notability
Annotate documents, record lectures and take notes with this all-in-one app. View in Mac App Store
Autodesk SketchBook
Take your ideas further with a complete set of digital drawing tools.View in Mac App Store
Day One
Keep a journal that sends reminders and looks great in day or month view. View in Mac App Store
See something you like? Save interesting articles, videos and web pages for later. View in Mac App Store
The Photo Cookbook
Follow over 240 easy‑to‑prepare recipes picture by picture. View in Mac App Store
Kuvva Wallpapers
Choose specially curated wallpapers from a new artist each week. View in Mac App Store
Tonality
Create inspiring black-and-white images on your Mac.View in Mac App Store
swackett
Get visual weather reports that turn complex data into fun infographics. View in Mac App Store
Sky Gamblers Cold War
Rule the action-packed skies in over a dozen different aeroplanes. View in Mac App Store
Sparkle 2
App Store For Macbook
This easy-to-play but enthralling game makes the most of the Retina display. View in Mac App Store
Bike Baron
Beat hundreds of challenges as you master over 100 different bike tracks. View in Mac App Store
Civilization V: Campaign Edition
Build and defend the most powerful empire the world has ever known. View in Mac App Store
Galaxy On Fire 2™ Full HD
Battle your way through a 3D war-torn galaxy against an alien armada. View in Mac App Store
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition
Build a city from the ground up and manage your metropolis in every way. View in Mac App Store
Money
Set a budget, schedule payments and track investments — all in one app. View in Mac App Store
MoneyWiz – Personal Finance
View all your accounts, transactions, budgets and bills in one secure place. View in Mac App Store
iBank
Manage your money with this fully featured, intuitive personal finance app. View in Mac App Store
Next - Track your expenses and finances
See your expenses by year, month or day, and take control of your finances. View in Mac App Store
Investoscope
Monitor your portfolio of stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more. View in Mac App Store
StockTouch
Keep track of the market in a whole new way. View in Mac App Store
djay
Mix songs from your iTunes library and spin live on a digital turntable. View in Mac App Store
Sound Studio
Record, edit and produce digital audio. Create your own mixes and add effects. View in Mac App Store
Shazam
Like what you hear? Identify a song at a moment’s notice. Then share it or buy it. View in Mac App Store
Tabular
Read and write tablature notation for guitar, bass, drums and more. View in Mac App Store
AmpKit
Turn your Mac into a powerful guitar amp and effects studio. View in Mac App Store
Sound Forge 2
Record, edit, process and render high-resolution audio files. View in Mac App Store
Install any app with ease.
The Mac App Store revolutionises the way apps are installed on a computer — it happens in one step. Enter the same iTunes password you use to buy apps and music on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or iPod touch. Within seconds, your new app flies to Launchpad, ready to go. So you can spend more time enjoying new apps and less time installing them.
Keep your apps up to date.
Since developers are constantly improving their apps, the Mac App Store keeps track of your apps and tells you when an update is available — including OS X software updates. Update one app at a time or all of them at once, for free. You can even have your apps and OS X update automatically, so you’ll always have the latest version of every app you own.
The app you need. When you need it.
Can’t open a file you’ve downloaded or received in an email? OS X can search the Mac App Store to find the app that can open the file. Buy what you need instantly and get back to business.
Buy, download and even re-download.
You can install apps on every Mac authorised for your personal use, and even download them again. This is especially convenient when you buy a new Mac and want to load it with apps you already own.
From the Mac App Store
Top Paid Apps
Top Free Apps
Weren't the olden days a hassle? Say you needed the newest Call of Duty game for your Mac. You'd have to journey to a brick-and-mortar retail store and look through packages on store shelves to find it. Not in stock? Then you'd have to buy it from an online storefront and either sit through a lengthy download and manual installation process or wait for a disk to be delivered -- in seven to 10 business days.
Enter the Mac App Store. Launched in January 2011, it allows Mac users to research and download free or paid apps, right from their computer, with just a few clicks. As of August 2011, the Mac App Store was available in 90 countries and contained 21 different categories with hundreds of applications ranging from language flashcards to yoga routines.
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The Mac App Store is preinstalled on Macs sold with OS X Lion (version 10.7) operating systems. Simply look for the Mac App Store icon, which is a blue circle with a white outline and an 'A' in the middle.
If your Mac is running an older operating system, you may still be able to download the Mac App Store. The Mac App Store is compatible with OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) and available for free download when you upgrade to OS X Lion. To get the Mac App Store, click the Apple icon at the top left of the screen, then choose 'software update.' After a dialog box appears, click the 'install' button. When the installation is complete, you will need to restart your Mac and launch the Mac App Store from the icon in your computer's dock.
The Mac App Store is similar in appearance and function to the already-existing App Store on iPhones and iPads. To open the store on a computer, click the Mac App Store icon on the computer's desktop dock. After the Mac App Store opens, users can search for apps by name or keyword, browse for apps by category, view 'new and noteworthy' apps or check out staff favorites.
The Mac App Store is modeled after other Mac apps with built-in purchase utilities, like iTunes and iBooks, through which more than 15 billion songs and 130 million books had been purchased as of June 2011 [source: Porten].
Read on to learn about a few key improvements that OS X Lion made to the Mac App Store.
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Apple's Lion (v10.7) operating system, which was released in July 2011, brought some notable improvements to Mac App Store, allowing users to make in-application purchases and receive push notifications and adding an incremental update system that identifies, downloads and installs only the files that need updating, making the process faster [source: Porten]. However, the Mac App Store doesn't recognize updates for a computer's existing software apps; you'll need to re-purchase the apps from the Mac App Store to receive automatic free updates for the apps [source: Gordon].
Now that downloading and updating apps is an exclusively electronic process that doesn't require disks, packaging materials and shipping, there's less of an environmental impact. Additionally, many Mac apps sold via disk or download had limited permissions that allowed them only to be operated on a single computer. The chief way around this restriction was to buy a pricey group license. Because the Mac App Store keeps track of past purchases, users can now install apps on every Mac they own and download them again as necessary. This is especially helpful for people who buy a new Mac and want to add software that they've already purchased [source: Apple].
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Ever tried to open a file and discovered you don't have the application it requires? On Macs with access to the Mac App Store, a dialog box will open and offer to search the Mac App Store for a program that will open it. If found, you can buy the app instantly [source: Luoma].
The Mac App Store offers free apps, as well as paid. On average, you can expect to pay between $15 and $80 for an app [source: Macworld]. However, there's at least one app -- the iRa Pro mobile video surveillance app -- that costs as much as $899.99.
What's the process for buying this -- or any -- app? On the next page, we offer a step-by-step guide.
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Mac Os App Store
Apple's hardware and software is part of a closed system that makes it difficult -- and sometimes impossible -- to migrate Mac-native components and programs to PCs. However, this closed system means that Apple hardware and software are built to work together across Apple's product lines. The Mac App Store offers a chance for third-party developers to create and sell apps to all Mac users.
Developers can register for free with Apple to download a developer kit, peruse guidelines, read articles and connect with other developers. When an app is complete, it can be submitted for approval along with an icon and keyword description [source: Lewis].
Mac Apps Apple Store Black Friday
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Third party developers pay an annual $99 subscription fee to Apple, but being part of an audience-rich marketplace means they can avoid spending money on marketing and hosting. Developers set their own prices for apps and don't need to pay credit card fees for purchases because Apple processes the cards and pays the 2-percent to 4-percent fee. Of the retail price, Apple keeps 30 percent and the developer receives 70 percent [source: Evans].
The purchase process is a relatively simple one on the users' end. Launch the Mac App Store, select an app and click the price icon (it will either say 'free' or show the purchase price). Then you will be prompted again with an icon that says 'buy app,' followed by a dialog box that requires your Apple ID and password to complete your purchase. You can pay using a credit or debit card, an iTunes card or a Paypal account. The app will begin downloading immediately and will be installed in your computer's Applications folder [source: Macworld].
If you'd like to know more about an app before you buy it, you can scroll through multiple screen shots. However, trial or demonstration versions aren't available, so you may have to rely on the app's user reviews to find out how the app performs. Or you can conduct research on other sites to find more objective opinions. The Apple Mac Store doesn't vet its reviews, so the opinions offer varying levels of helpfulness.
The Mac App Store offers genre categories, as well a 'new and noteworthy' section that features 12 apps on the Mac App Store's launch page and a total of 40 apps under the category's own tab. These apps are chosen by Apple; there aren't any published guidelines for selection, although developers speculate it has to do with having an appealing icon and price point [source: Touch Arcade].
While the Mac App Store continues to grow, both in number of apps and users, it seems Apple is turning its attention to some of its other devices. A major iPhone hardware and software revamp is in the works, scheduled for a 2012 release [source: Luk]. It's expected to include a new way to charge the phone. If it does switch to a cable-free charging method, that may in turn influence a few positive changes in future Mac computers, just as the iPhone's App Store influenced the Mac App Store.
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Related Articles
Sources
- Apple.com. 'The Mac App Store.' January 2011. (Aug. 14, 2011) http://www.apple.com/mac/app-store/
- Evans, Jonny. 'Collected: What We Know about the Mac App Store.' Jan. 6, 2011. (Aug. 14, 2011) Computerworld.com. http://blogs.computerworld.com/17618/collected_what_we_know_about_the_mac_app_store
- Gordon, Whitson. 'Why the Mac App Store Sucks.' Lifehacker.com. Jan. 6, 2011. (Aug. 14, 2011) http://lifehacker.com/5726764/why-the-mac-app-store-sucks
- Lewis, Jim. 'How to Become a Mac App Store Developer.' R-tt.com. Jan. 5, 2011. (Aug. 14, 2011) http://macappstore-developer.articles.r-tt.com/
- Luoma, T.J. 'Finder Now Offers to Search App Store for Unknown File Types.' Tuaw.com. Jan. 7, 2011. (Aug. 14, 2011) http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/07/finder-now-offers-to-search-app-store-for-unknown-file-types/
- Macworld.com. 'The Mac App Store: What You Need to Know.' Jan. 6, 2011. (Aug. 14, 2011) http://www.macworld.com/article/156962/2011/01/mac_app_store_faq.html
- O'Dell, Jolie. 'Windows Gets an App Store of its Own: Avenue.' Mashable.com. June 28, 2011. (Aug. 14, 2011) http://mashable.com/2011/06/28/netvolution-avenue/
- Porten, Jeff. 'WWDC: Apple Touts App Store Successes.' Mac World. June 6, 2011. (Aug. 14, 2011) http://www.macworld.com/article/160331/2011/06/wwdc_mac_app_store.html
- TouchArcade.com. 'How to Get on 'New and Noteworthy' May 27, 2009. (Aug. 14, 2011) http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=14134