Reflection on the Mac App Store

The cat is out of the bag. Apple launched the long awaited Mac App store this morning and so far it has received quite a lot of buzz in the blogosphere.

It appears that so far many of the apps (aside from Apple’s own stuff) are iOS ports such as the fantastic “Angry Birds” and “Flight Control HD”. This seems natural to me as people with iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches will already be familiar with these. Many of these ports will probably have acceptably designed controls adapted for keyboard and mouse, while others will probably be a disaster.

I was thinking why would anyone want to play an iOS game ported to Mac instead of just on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch? Games designed for iOS surely are going to be far more interesting to play with on a touch based device. Not to mention the fact that many games support the gyroscope of the iPhone 4. This past week I fired up iD softwares Rage HD on my iPhone 4 and set my controls to use the Gyroscope (the latest update allows this). I sat in my office chair and moved around while shooting monsters, and it was absolutely glorious. You just can’t get that kind of experience on the Mac.

On the flip side, it’s looking like other popular apps from Panic software and Pixelmator made it in, and they are priced more or less the same as what they sell for on the vendors own websites. The fact that it’s two clicks to install an app and you can keep track of all of your purchases in your iTunes account is truly something fantastic.