Welcome to the Mac App Store

As expected, Apple are set to launch the highly anticipated Mac App Store tomorrow for Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

In anticipation of the launch Realmac Software, creators of the popular Mac OS X applications RapidWeaver and LittleSnapper, have released a statement on their blog explaining their new prices and software availability.

The good news is that they plan to have RapidWeaver ($39.99), LittleSnapper ($24.99) and Courier ($4.99) available in the App Store on day one, so at least we can expect to see some "Triple A" applications at launch. They also revealed that Courier will become an App Store exclusive app, at the new lower price (all previous customers will receive a refund, see the Realmac blog for more details).

Unfortunately there is some bad news. Due to Apple's Mac App Store restrictions there is no way for you to migrate your existing applications over to the versions sold in the Mac App Store. Therefore you are forced to re-purchase the application when you next upgrade. This isn't a limitation of Realmac Software and will be the case with all applications. As a result it will still be a quite some time before all my applications are managed through the Mac App Store.

All signs are pointing towards a 09:00 launch at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, meaning it should hopefully appear as a "Software Update" at around 17:00 UK.

Update on Thursday, January 6, 2011 at 4:50PM by Matt (LifeinTECH)

The Mac App Store is now live as part of Mac OS X 10.6.6. The store looks fully stocked and even has some great discounts on major applications such as iLife, iWork, Aperture, Things and many more.

The Mac App Store also seems to recognise some previously installed applications, however you are not able to migrate them so they can be managed and updated through the App Store.

I honestly believe this could be a game changer for the Mac.