Apple shutting down Mac OS X Downloads section of Apple.com on Jan. 6, 2011

I think it remains to be seen whether the MAS will be so prominent in customers' minds as to do serious damage to non-MAS developers.

When I'm looking for an app I currently search MacUpdate. I assume they will be modified to have both MAS apps *and* non-MAS apps, which means I'll probably keep using them.

I may decide I prefer getting apps the old-fashioned way, where the developer can push bug fixes and updates on *their* schedule.

So for people who thought SL was not a worthwhile upgrade and have Leopard until Lion comes along, we have no Apple-approved way of getting apps? Utter genius.

If Tiger hadn't have been dropped like a lead balloon already, they could shove their Intel chips up their hineys.

A bunch of you are quite simply, nuts. Apple are trying to simplify things here and also make it cheaper for developers. If developers are to distribute their software through their own channels, i.e. their own website, they need to pay for the hosting, search engine optimisation, bandwidth, etc... and many customers will never even find their software because there is so much on the internet these days!
By introducing the MAS, Apple are giving independent developers and large corporations alike, the chance to get their software found and purchased. It is not a screw-devs-out-of-their-money scam, it's for the benefit of anyone who isn't obsessed with 'freedom'.
If you want to go and distribute your software at your own cost, be mine and Apple's guest. Pay for your website and your bandwidth, go on!
But don't slag Apple off when they're making things better and simpler.

Okay, FWIW, as a middle-aged suburban female wanna-be Mac FanBoy my thoughts are:
- I actually was blissfully unaware of the Mac OS X Downloads section on Apple.com until reading this article and I can't be the only one who's never heard of it so it won't be a death mourned by everyone;
- In anxious anticipation of someday being a Verizon iPhone owner and/or iPad owner but as yet only possessing a 1st gen iPod Nano ;-), I make a habit of perusing the App Store now and again. I find it overwhelming and imagine that all kinds of cool apps exist that I would never find because of all the carp. I'm not a gamer but games seem to make up about 80% of the apps developed for iOS. If the MAS is as useless as the App Store, I can't picture myself using it very often;
- I'm always on the lookout for new, exciting applications for my iMac. Sometimes I spend time looking through Cnet or Tucows but mostly I depend on sites such as this to recommend/review useful apps;
- If, as predicted by an earlier commentator, the MAS eventually goes the way of the App Store and becomes the only method of downloading and installing apps on my iMac, I might have to join a cult and become a Luddite. The line between being the best game in town and the only game in town isn't all that thin and if Apple were to cross it, it really would be the end of the world. And there's no way I'd ever go back to PCs.

Idiot. Why bitch on TUAW when APPLE is calling it... "The Mac APP" store??

"App"; it's the new application.

Agree with Dan and RB2B above. Apple is a business, they exist ultimately to make money. Thankfully they make and sell well designed, desirable products and applications while doing so.

Besides, can you imagine hunting around all over the web now to find iPhone apps? It just works!

I wonder what this means for getting Combo Downloads and other specific updates. You could read the letter that it's just applications, but it seems they're totally trashing the download part of the site.

On a related note, I agree that fully fledged OS X software shouldn't be referred to as 'apps' - it sounds... kinda strange for stuff like Photoshop Suite or Ableton. Anyhoo...

It would mean that to simply get a Combo Download, you'd have to install the Mac App Store. A step backward, in my opinion.

I'm one of the recipients of the original letter.

My conclusion is that for Indie developers the Mac App Store in its current form is a short leash, lock-in, penalty and taxation system.

Apple is turning evil.. :-(

http://blog.beatunes.com/2010/12/letter-to-ron-okamoto.html

Apple for me stands for community. If the new Mac application store retains links to the developpers' sites then okay; if not then our community, users and developpers is losing a most important element of exchange.

wow! the last two comments pretty much sum up the next 5 years for apple... they keep closing the system, channeling the profits through their "stores" and closing the devices you own for their $$$ benefit.