Mac App Store a Good Deal for Small Businesses

The Mac App Store is a virtual store where you can purchase and download applications for your Mac; it was launched early this year as a software update to Mac OS X 10.6 and is now standard on Mac OS X 10.7. Apple's aim is to duplicate the success of the iOS App Store, with more than 500,000 apps available and 15 billion downloads and counting.

Even though it's quite a way off to achieving its goals, the Mac App Store changes the way apps are distributed to users, and provides bottom-line benefits to Mac-based small businesses. The process is virtually the same with the iOS App Store: you create an Apple ID with your credit card information, and log in with this ID to purchase and download applications from the App Store.

This centralizes all purchases in one location, and should lessen the headaches of trying to remember which retailer or online store you got your software from. In case your computer gets lost or your hard drive crashes, you don't need to fumble around for the installer CDs or DVDs. Just log in with your Apple ID in the App Store and you'll be able to download all the items you've purchased before.

Upgrades are also automatic, so if there's a new version available for the app that you purchased, you'll get an indicator to download it for free. This streamlines software updates and bug fixes and ensures that what you download is always the current version.

The Mac App Store also does away with serial numbers or license keys. Before, you'd have to make sure you didn't lose the box or paper with the serial numbers so you'll have no problems reinstalling it in the future. Each app that you purchase is associated with your Apple ID, so no need for entering long, cryptic activation keys or serial numbers.

Finally, the Mac App Store lets you install all the apps that you've purchased on all the computers that you own. So for example, if you have four Macs, you can copy or download the software to your other Macs with no additional purchase. And if you think this is a process that Apple would make complicated, it's actually the reverse: open up the App Store Help screen and search for the topic "Use applications on multiple Macs." The help screen actually shows several ways of doing it!

Of course, it helps to be aware of the shortcomings of the App Store as well. Aside from apps from Apple like iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut, etc., not all major software titles are there yet. It will be a while before we see Adobe CS or Microsoft Office available there, especially with some software makers very particular about their software being used on one computer at a time only. Also, Apple has sole discretion of what kind of apps can be available in the App Store. If it doesn't meet their guidelines, it won't be available in the store.

With the release of Mac OS X 10.7, and more than a million downloads in a day straight from the App Store, there's a big potential for it to be the place to get Mac software from. If you're primarily using iWork and apps available in the Mac App Store, your business can save on software and maintenance costs. One more reason to go all Mac.