Pretty much all smartphone platforms have their own app store. This provides a unified place to find and purchase applications for one’s device. This is really nice; it makes finding software easy. Apple pioneered this approach with the iPhone App store (which launched in 2008), and followed with the Mac App Store (in 2011). When I first got a Mac last spring, I was really excited to use the Mac App Store. My other computer runs Windows 7, which doesn’t have any sort of app store (the closest thing I have there is CNET). It sounded really great to not only have a unified place to find apps, but also a unified way to update them (similar to iOS). In practice, however, I haven’t used the Mac App Store much. The reason? The selection is pretty disappointing. There just aren’t many good apps there. The couple of times I’ve gone to the Mac App Store looking for something I’ve come away disappointed. Subdividing this problem of selection, I’ve determined two major reasons why the Mac App Store has such as small assortment of apps.
1. Sandboxing
Sandboxing is required for all apps on the Mac App Store. Sandboxing is a term that many people have never heard used in a software context (only in a children’s playground one). Basically, sandboxing means that each program is completely isolated, in its own “sandbox,” if you will. The benefit of this is that apps can’t meddle with other apps. For example, Microsoft Word can’t go over and, say, wreck Firefox’s awesome castle. This sounds good in principle, until you realize that apps can’t work together either. Maybe Firefox wanted Word to help with his castle. The final problem is that apps can’t use common operating system resources that other apps might use too. Microsoft Word wouldn’t be allowed to play on the swings, because it might hog them and not give Firefox a turn. Bad analogies aside, sandboxing is something Apple is big on. They are only now starting to take a step back from sandboxing in iOS with extensions. Going back to the Mac, many apps simply can’t make themselves available on the Mac App Store, since they require advanced functionality that they can’t have while sandboxed. This is really a shame, and it means I only have two App Store apps (Microsoft OneDrive and Apple’s Xcode) actually installed on my Mac right now.
2. Pricing
This is just a pet peeve of mine. I (like most people, I assume) like free software. I almost never pay for software; there’s almost always a free alternative out there. It may not work quite as well, but at least it was free. The Mac App Store is not a good place to find free software. For example, the other day I was looking for a way to change the date taken in a photo. I don’t have iPhoto, and since Apple’s going to replace it with a (free!) “Photos” app in the next year, there’s no reason for me to spend $15 on it. Searching online, I found a program called “Photo Date Changer.” This program basically exists just to change the date on photos. I thought, “Perfect, just what I need.” This program is on the Mac App Store. $8. There is no way I am going to pay $8 for a program that just changes the date on a photo. I have a theory as to why Mac App Store apps are more expensive. The reason is that Macs are more expensive. I guess developers assume that someone willing to spend more money on a Mac is willing to spend more money on software. I, however, am not.
In conclusion, I hope the Mac App Store gets better. Maybe Apple will start to open up sandboxing as they have done in iOS. Maybe, as time goes on, more and more apps will become available on the store. I hope this happens, but I’m not sure that it’s going to. Fortunately, there’s always CNET. ••
Staring at Phones 
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