It was not launched at Vegas during CES, but could prove to be a much bigger game changer than all the products launched with a lot of razmatazz out there. We are talking of Apple’s Mac App Store, which has just gone live some minutes ago. The store is available to all Mac OS Snow Leopard users through a Mac OS update (10.6.6), and attempts to follow the App Store model, allowing users to download apps with just a click, automatically update apps and so on. At the time of launch, there were more than a thousand apps – free as well as paid – available on the store for download including Apple’s own Aperture, Apple Works suite and so on.
Will this do to the computer what the App Store did to the iPhone? Only time, and the number of apps on the store, will tell. For our part, we are optimistic as it takes the dealer out of the equation and also saves us from trips to stores and fiddling with disks. Yes, yes, we are downloading the 10.6.6 update that will let us access the store on our machines.
Update: Our early impression / hands-on
