For users, Macs are great. But Apple has always had a contentious at best relationship with developers. Their tone has always struck me as small developers are a pain, and they would rather have fewer developers ergo less software.
That said, I think developers should be very concerned for a couple of reasons:
1. People will automatically associated this with the iOS App Store experience, which will drive prices way down for richer desktop applications. That was my very first thought.
2. Apple will justify a review and approval process for desktop applications on the basis of something like "application security" and "keeping viruses off your Mac". They went that direction with the argument of eliminating porn, which was silly.
In the end, this closes the software ecosystem. It may work for Apple, but I'm not sure I would want to be a part of it.
"1. People will automatically associated this with the iOS App Store experience, which will drive prices way down for richer desktop applications. That was my very first thought."
Why does everyone keep saying this? Supply and demand! If you think your software is worth more, charge more for it!
I concur. There's also another factor that I think will make this a non-issue. For whatever reason, iPad apps are pretty consistently 3-5x their iPhone equivalent price. I doubt users will balk when OS X apps are 3-5 times that.
That said, I think developers should be very concerned for a couple of reasons:
1. People will automatically associated this with the iOS App Store experience, which will drive prices way down for richer desktop applications. That was my very first thought.
2. Apple will justify a review and approval process for desktop applications on the basis of something like "application security" and "keeping viruses off your Mac". They went that direction with the argument of eliminating porn, which was silly.
In the end, this closes the software ecosystem. It may work for Apple, but I'm not sure I would want to be a part of it.