The most popular channel for Mac app sales outside of Apple’s store is, of course, via the developer’s own website — though when it comes to making those sales, the challenges remain much the same as before: app discovery, marking, and user acquisition. I’ll be interested to see how third-party app stores rise to the challenge of helping developers with those challenges in future.
There’s an interesting side insight here.
Despite years of complaining about Apple’s 30% fee on apps sold through its own store (really, it is around 15% for the vast majority), it strongly appears developers believe it is worth sharing revenue with app retail services. That, once again, means the only real question behind of the App Store liberation remains the same: How much is fair to charge? That amount differs, but people seem pretty certain that revenue sharing is good for business, and a good chunk of them plan to stick with the App Store.