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Apple Planning To Retire Boxed Software! OSX TOO?


iMatt84
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Apple is planning to retire those sleek white boxes holding software discs, according to a report. Sources told MacRumors that Apple is moving towards an all-digital distribution platform of its software, as direct-to-computer downloads through the new Mac App Store pick up.

 

At an Apple Store, this could mean employees will be tasked with walking customers through a Mac App Store purchase, or it could mean standalone Mac setup stations.

 

Eliminating boxed software would also free up retail space for higher profit items "such as iPad or iPhone accessories," the report said.

 

According to PCMag's lead analyst for software and Web applications, Michael Muchmore, it's a good move for consumers.

 

"I think it makes a lot of sense. The Mac App Store lets you use apps you've bought on up to five computers, streamlines updating the software, and gives sellers a central place to hawk their wares," he said. "Apple itself sells Aperture photo editing software for $79 on the App store, but $199 on their software Web page, so they really should have already pulled the Web-based store."

 

The most obvious problem is, of course, that you'll need a reliable, fast Internet connection.

 

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

For more details, see PC Mag's hands-on with the Mac App Store and the slideshow below.

 

 

 

Source:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379668,00.asp

 

THIS COULD MEAN THAT APPLE WILL DISCONTINUE SELLING SNOW LEAPORD IN RETAIL STORES AND ONLY AVAILABLE THROUGH MACS!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I thought this was stupid when I first saw news of it and I haven't changed my mind on it yet. The whole movement to all digital distribution for everything puts me into the state of mind of thinking about the humans from the film Wall-E...just pathetic and we all saw it coming. It's as bad as seeing scientists and engineers moving full speed ahead on artificial intelligence even after having seen Terminator, the Matrix and having engineers and scientists validate that yes those things could possibly happen etc. In terms of just looking at the legal side of this, away from the Hackintosh movement, the one thing everyone should know by now is that digital browsing by and large is a "Tunnel Vision" experience; you see one specific thing that you were directed towards specifically and maybe one or two other things around the periphery of the interface. If anything software developers should be fighting this the hardest. It's been said that going electronic Democratizes everything, but I beg to differ. Electronic distribution actually creates more obstacles, because the things that get searched come from the people or companies that have the deepest pockets to market and promote their products. If I'm an indie game developer and I really want to get bold I can leave a bunch of flyers in a Best Buy promoting my wares, or I can wear a jacket that has my website address on it, but online it totally eliminates consignment option or any kind of indirect promotion.

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  • 2 months later...

I personally love the App Store idea and use it a lot.

 

Software from the Mac AppStore is much cheaper then on physical disks and Suites of programs ( iwork, ilife ) are split into their single apps. Say you need only Pages but not Numbers or keynote - you will get just that from the digital store for actually ( right now ) under 17 Euro . Also you download always the latest fully patched version which means that the updating thing is not so dramatic.

 

Some shops in your area might not have Apple Software or not the one you are looking for, with the App store you can buy it all around the clock and have it downlaoded instantly. Even for non debit card owners, cause you can use the very same itunes cash cards and redeem them for all Software from Apples "Repo".

 

Backing up is just compressing the downloaded app as a zip file and burn it on CD, load to a cloud/dropbox/idisk etc. In case you have to rebuild the OS, unzip it again, launch the Appstore, put the Apple ID in that you used to download it originally and it will be your app again. Like itunes for music purchases.

 

Having a broadband internet connection is of course a must have, but in reality this is a must have even without Apples new idea and also for other OS. OS Updates, Skype, Youtube, facebook, Browser Games .. all that causes traffic like hell. What would Linux be without its Distro/Repositories ? Having a offline Ubuntu install is basically pointless as you are excluded from all the extra software .. you get the point.

 

For people being able to reload their OS onto computers Apple will provide maybe a USB boot utility or just the ISO to burn . Microsoft sells Win7 as download and does the same. The experiment they did before was selling Vista as downloadable exe files that would only work in a already working Xp as a one time Upgrade option. This was a epic fail. People need isos or sticks and need also the possibility to wipe / reload a clean HDD.

 

The Operating System, be it Windows,OSX or Linux is THE critical thing a computer needs; so that must be assured to be available "offline"and must always be available on whatever medium to the End-User. At least to Leopard/Snow Leopard Users this is true for Apple now.

 

Another solution would be to ship new "Lion" - Macs with a hidden restore partition that contains the iso/dmg and a small bootloader that can be accessed via hotkey-combination and that will reload the OS from that partition. If they go that route they of course must secure these partitions in case a user will install another OS and temporarly replace OSX. So even then a DVD /USB key is not fully obsolete.

 

 

Just wait. Lion is not ready, it is all speculation.

 

generally I see the way we are headed positive. Remembering the itunes movement when people wondered how to save all their downloaded digital albums. This will be very similar.

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