You know, a developer's website speaks volumes about the application(s) that they are offering. By putting all those apps into a single location and homogenizing the presentation, Apple is really putting buyers at a disadvantage. Gone is all the uniqueness and subtle nuance that helps customers to make purchasing decisions when browsing a dev's website.

Developers Web Sites
 

The Developers Web sites will not roll up and disappear. Plenty of IOS Apps have Websites. The only difference is the method of obtaining the App. And in the case of Mac App Store there is still a choice of how to distribute, though some suspect that some day that choice might disappear. That is not something that can be divined at the moment.

I personally think that over time most developers will choose to live in the App store. Non App Store purchases will become something more like on Jail Broken phones with out the Jail Breaking.

It will really be a matter of supply and demand.

That's basically how I envision it too.

Many iOS apps have websites because the developer also makes Mac apps. If the developer also migrates his/her Mac apps to Apple's store, their entire site will likely be left to rot.

You could say the same about supermarkets vs. high-street shops.

It appears that over one million downloads were made on the first day. But then popularity is no judge of anything. Look at democracy!!:D

From what i understand of that little soap opera, it's not as if the entire VLC development team is up in arms... but rather one particular programmer —who just happens to work for Nokia, and whose contribution to the VLC project may only amount to a few lines of code.

So while he's picking nits about the wording of the EULA, the eventual result of his action would actually do more harm than good (in terms of limiting end users' enjoyment of VLC). Also, i think one of the complaints had to do with Apple limiting stuff to 5 devices... but "stuff" in that case refers to purchased music not apps. And anyway, i believe that limit of 5 "devices" applies to computers... not iToys. (if someone owns 2 iPhones, 5 iPods and 10 iPads... then whatever they get from the iTunes Media Store could be placed on all 17 of those devices).

It's one of the oldest tricks in the book. You give something out for free to entice new customers and to get them in the habit of buying from you. Apple made sure that there were freebies and heavily discounted apps in the store at launch. I wonder what percentage of that 1 million downloads was the free Twitter app.

Oh yes, and this little cosmetic issue.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5045/...e9cd1ff8_m.jpg

Picky, picky, and nothing major. It just bugs me, y'know?

What about it bugs you, exactly?

The slightly different shade of blue, the white A instead of black, or something else that I'm not seeing?

Well, both points above. I know it's nothing major, but still.

Well the whole app store thing on OS X is sort of moot if it does not get approved. I can still go to VLC's site and download and install the app itself if I like. It not being on the app store makes no difference to me.

Though it will affect iOS devices since all their apps must be installed via iTunes or the app store unless you jail break it.

Web sites do not cost much
 

Web sites do not cost much and drive loyalty. I seriously doubt that developers will drop them.

Of course Developers won't drop websites. It's the best way to describe and talk about their work. They can post much more detail than they can on the App Store. Perhaps some have not noticed that the App Store has a clickable link to the developer's site. The store is just a store. Just because I might buy a product at Walmart, doesn't mean it's not available by other means.

Here's a readable explanation of the controversy:

VLC app removed from App Store

and one with a bit more detail:

No GPL Apps for Apple's App Store

It's definitely broken. Compared to iOS development, Mac OS X development is stagnant and unpopular.

The websites are only interesting to people who enjoy shopping for software as an end in itself. For those who want to purchase and use the software as quickly as possible, they are tedious and disorienting.

I'm not saying that the App store is perfect, but it's easy to see why Apple did this.

many reasons
 

Many reasons to visit a web site. Shopping. Company polices. Bug Reporting. Tips on how to do things. Every person has a different reason. For many though the App store will be the beginning and end.

Well, though it lacked details (like the dude's name perhaps), I thought my summary was quite "readable". ;) It seems to boil down to some Nokia tool from Finland trying to make a name for himself. I guess the hatred of Apple in general (and Steve Jobs in particular) runs pretty high over there.

Hopefully, VLC's usefulness will be short-lived. (I only use it for playing Flash vids myself).

I love VLC. It runs on every platform and plays every piece of media out of the box with no extra codecs. I run it on my Mac, my Windows box and my Linux box.

There shouldn't exist so many varieties of media. That's the source of the problem, and that's what needs fixing. VLC shouldn't be necessary. Yeah, I like it too... big deal.

Off topic, but I don't think that will ever happen, at least not for a long time. MS adopts XML in the latest version of Office, but it is their version of XML. Abode gets flak from Apple about flash and yet I don't see HTML 5 kicking flash out of the market.

Then you have the anti-piracy crowd that want to out proprietary DRM formats. Heck, I sometimes still find companies that put things out in real player media format....that just boggles my mind.

My point about it not being on the App store for Macs is not that big of a deal as you can still download it yourself. In fact, I am not sure if I would even just download an app form the app store personally without going to the home page of the app to read more about it. At that point I'd just download it from the developer's site.

For me AppStore is like a Police Station. If you go there normally everything is friendly and cosy. But you know all the time that they have the power.