Scott Wyatt wrote:
Lynn:
A number of applications written in RB are on the shelves at Apple
Stores. I think MacBurn, for example, is actually an RB app. I forget
the publisher, but there are five or six similarly designed boxes on the
shelf. I am willing to bet the exposure in an Apple Store, on the Apple
Site, and in the Apple-CompUSA areas is pretty important to this developer.
MacBurn is the retail incarnation of DiscBlaze 5 (which is made with RB)
by Radical Breeze (www.radicalbreeze.com).
The retail publisher we (radical breeze) use also publishes Media Edit
(another mwrb app) and a font collection which has a MWRB app in it I
believe too.
If I had a mainstream application based on RB, it would concern me. You
can't beat the exposure of a store shelf, even today. I might order
books online, but I still look in a bookstore and browse. I do the same
when I find an Apple Store.
Actually, it's funny. We do far, far better from online sales than we
do from retail sales (mostly due to the fact that we get 99% of the
money from an online purchase... whereas we may only end up seeing a few
bucks from a retail one after everyone's been paid). Plus not all Apple
stores carry a big software selection... so it's not a huge financial
hit if Apple won't carry the box for X months.
I mean, it would still suck if they stopped carrying PPC-only apps right
now... but not the end of the world.
Another important example: educators still buy from the online Apple
store. Schools often have portals with Apple, just for this purpose. If
my educational software (clearly a niche) is not listed, but a competing
Obj-C app is listed, then I am at a very real disadvantage. Teachers buy
from where the purchase orders work... hence CSU instructors buy from
the Apple site.
That's a pretty real concern. I'm hopeful that Apple will continue to
sell PPC only apps in their online store even if they don't in retail.
The "complaint" thread represents such concerns on the part of
developers. Many of us want as much "pure" OS X in our lives as
possible. Right now, there are limitations to RB in this regard -- but
we have been told to expect some exciting changes.
The changes, apparently, can come none to soon.
I know Realsoftware will get the universal binary support to us as fast
as they can.
It's hard for any company to sync up their release schedule to Apple
nowadays (First Apple says intel macs in/by june, they they ship some of
it in january. They say PPC is fully supported for many years, then
they may be dropping PPC software sales early). So if REALbasic ships
with Universal Binary support even close to the original "June" date
Apple set... I'll be happy.
Sooner is always better... but there's not much we can do, and I know RS
is working hard on it.
-Bryan Lund
www.radicalbreeze.com
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