Apple Axes Demos From the Mac App Store

So the Mac App Store won’t have demos. How about that. Demos, trials and ‘Lite’ versions are hugely popular on iOS, helping drive sales – but the Mac App Store is having none of that bullspit up in hurr. Apple is pretending they’re still down with demos, at least in concept, as indicated by a statement made in the announcement:

Your website is the best place to provide demos, trial versions, or betas of your software for customers to explore. The apps you submit to be reviewed for the Mac App Store should be fully functional, retail versions of your apps.

Come on, Steve – that’s a pretty crappy deal. Believe you me, it’s ceaselessly generous that you’re giving the developer permission to release demos on his or her own website, but are people really gonna take the extra few clicks to divert there to get them? The more tech-savvy, yes. Johnny McCasualgamer, Tina O’Soccermom, definitely not. I’d say that the likely decreased sales will pressure Apple into rethinking this move, but that’s never stopped Steve before. I guess by January’s end, when the Mac App Store launches, we’re getting what we’re getting. Fully-functional, retail versions of apps we’re not sure we wanna pay for.