Last May, Cabel Sasser, co-founder of Panic, announced that the team was pulling Coda, their highly regarded web development tool, from the Mac App Store, primarily due to sandboxing issues.
As we continued to work on Coda 2.5—a significant update that we’re really excited about—we continued to discover new corners of the app that presented challenges under sandboxing. Coda, to be fair, is a very complex developer tool and is something of a sandboxing worst-case scenario.
Apple, to their considerable credit, spent a lot of energy assisting us with ideas, workarounds, and temporary exemptions we might be able to use to get around some of the issues. Apple genuinely went above and beyond the call of duty, and we’re really thankful for their help. We got extremely close and jumped over a lot of tricky hurdles thanks to them.
Unfortunately, though, we’ve run out of time.
Yesterday, in a Panic state-of-the-union, Cabel published the results of this experiment.
So, how’d it go? After running the numbers, it looks like Coda’s sales have not suffered significantly since leaving the Mac App Store.
Coda was removed from the Mac App Store in mid-October, at the same time version 2.5 was released. Since new releases always generate a short-term sales spike and we wanted the numbers to be fairly representative of “typical sales”, we looked at one month on either side — September and November.
The results were interesting. We sold a couple hundred fewer units of Coda post-App Store removal, but revenue from it went up by about 44%.
Now, two explanations for that: in addition to keeping the 30% that would have normally gone to Apple, we also returned Coda from its sale price ($79) to its regular price ($99) alongside the release of 2.5. Even if those factors hadn’t been in play, though, I don’t think the decline in Coda revenue would have been as dramatic as we originally feared it might be.
Of course we have it easy — it’s an established app with a dedicated customer base. If Coda did not already exist or Panic was not well-known, ignoring the Mac App Store would’ve been a much harder decision with possibly larger ramifications.
Back in October, Rich Siegel announced that BBEdit was leaving the Mac App Store as well. BBEdit is also widely used by developers, has a strong brand and a rabid following. It would be interesting to see how BBEdit is faring.
Side note: You can release a Mac App on your own, without going through the App Store, but your options are extremely limited for iOS. You can build a web app targeted at iOS, but there’s no way to deliver something truly native without going through the iOS App Store.
There’s no technical reason for the two platforms to be treated differently. Apple could certainly tighten the screws on the Mac side to prevent unsigned apps from running natively on OS X. This is an inheritance issue. People have always had the right to self-publish on OS X. But iOS set its exclusivity rules from the get-go.
Different rules for such intimately tied platforms is a small force pushing iOS and OS X apart when Apple is trying to bring them together. A small example of dissonance.
I can see the handwriting on the wall – one day Apple expects to be able to lock down OS X, so that an application won’t run unless Apple says it’s OK. If they tried that crap now, there’d be a huge backlash, but what about 5 years from now? Or 10? Or more? Eventually it won’t be as big of a deal. But I hope I’m wrong. OS X is such a great operating system for nerds as it stands right now, and I’d hate to see that go away.
The day OS X gets locked down to the same extent as iOS and requires all apps to be purchased from MAS is the day I drop OS X. Though more accurately, I will just refuse to upgrade to that OS version as long as possible, but will not buy a MacBook with the new version.
Thanks for that post: I bought Coda a long time ago on the app-store.
Panic allows for a move to „their“ Version: GREAT
BUT I disagree strongly with the last assessment: A mobile phone is not a PC. There are technical and “social” reasons for that:
If sideloading became available, you create a huge security problem on one side and piracy on the other. This would mean that the app-store would become less profitable for Apple and the Developer which then would mean that less apps are made.
I think that it would lead to an overall worse experience.
If someone wants to write code for their smartphone there is Android and its a solid system for that purpose.
In my opinion there is no perfect solution but a “sliding scale of freedom” on which the OS-Developers have to select their “sweet spot”: Freedom means responsibility and people who will abuse that freedom.
I want that freedom on my PC but I do not want to be responsible for keeping my mobile secure.
Same with me but I don’t think Apple is so far out of touch with its user-base. We may see a “only run Store-Apps”-Checkbox in the security-settings at some point but a PC by its very definition has to be able to interpret code.
Hell, Apple puts a scripting Editor in every installation by default.
Not every app needs to be on the App Store.
The App Store is not an evil monster out to crush developers’ souls.
The net effect of the App Store has been a positive one for developers. There are always exceptions.
I suspect security is what makes the iOS store so much more important to Apple to treat it differently than Macs. They have to lock down phones. They have to work, always. They can’t open it up without it becoming the mess that is Android.
OS X is different. And I don’t believe they are trying to merge the two OSs. They just want them to use the same visual style so that it’s familiar to people who use both. And they want to encourage people to use both.
As Steve Jobs pointed out, Macs are like trucks. We do work with them. There’s no way we can allow our computers to be that locked down. Apple is smart enough to know that. I also hope they’re smart enough to know we need another Snow Leopard release. Forget new features. Fix the ones you have!
There already is that setting in System Preferences. You can choose to run any app, signed apps, or MAS-only apps. And even if you choose signed apps only, you can still override that setting anytime by holding down option or some other key when you opened the non-signed app, and it will exempt that app from the system security settings.
Relax, Apple isn’t going to force MAS apps on OSX. They would have done it by now if they really wanted to. Instead they’ve given us a really great, and secure, option within System Preferences.
youre wrong. there.
do you guys actually, you know, use mac? because that setting already exists. its old news. there is no conspiracy.
next!
as for unification — i just wish theyd make iOS’ Contacts icon brown like the leather-clad contacts book in OS X. i dont get why its a completely different color in iOS.