I recently switched from PC to Mac, and is starting to repurchase applications for OS X.

I google apps first, before I go to Appstore. Why? Appstore is full of crap. I can't find what I need. If I type in "text editor" in the Appstore, I can't easily find the best text editor for OS X. However, if I google "best text editor for os X" I get meaningful results.

Steam has the advantage over the Appstore in that most apps in Steam are "worthy". They are large, complicated applications worthy of your time and money. The Appstore is suffering from the weight of a thousand little "Hello World" applications, with little or no value to anyone.

The Appstore has potential but the filtering and presenting is not where it needs to be. As a user, the Appstore model of "appear free but charge me in-app purchases later" sucks. It only serves to annoy me. It's not that I mind paying $50 for software. I just want free software to be free. If you want $50 from me, stay in the non-free section.

All in all, I've spent 5 times the $$$ on Steam and web downloads than on the Appstore, during my first 2 weeks as a Mac owner.

And Google first page hits gets the $$$

Despite mostly distributing games, Steam also has a section for non-game applications though there aren't very many to choose from.

http://store.steampowered.com/tag/en/Software

Yup, the guys at Paddle are: https://www.paddle.com/

https://www.paddle.com/sell for the developer solution.

FD: I work at Paddle, and would be happy to answer any questions. It's exactly these types of headaches we're trying to solve for developers.

Any comment on the problems with the Macaw launch?

Sure! We worked with Macaw to power their pre-order sales, and did several thousand pre-orders of their application prior to the launch. It was Macaw's intention for the duration of the pre-order to use Paddle's SDKs on Mac and Windows to distribute their application (provide trial version, license codes etc...)

A few weeks before the pre-order ended the Macaw guys decided, that users having an account with Macaw would be a better way for users to license the application (to be fair to them, they've made the product registration/ activation process really nice).

Unfortunately, we weren't given much notice of the switch away from Paddle, and the process of giving access to pre-order customers wasn't handled in the best way. Which resulted in some pre-order customers not getting their copies of the application until a few days after the launch. -- We weren't actually powering the app, or their licensing at this point, but given more notice of the switch/ their launch, we could have assisted in getting the pre-order customers copies to them more seamlessly.

That said, and although Macaw aren't a customer of ours anymore (and haven't been since the pre-order), they seem to be killing it, have made a truly stellar product, and we wish them all the best! :)

Thanks for the great reply it reset my personal views on your service (which were based on previous experience). I was one of those pre-order customers. I wish you and your company luck!

Interesting, thanks. I'll have to check this out.

I was just thinking "wow, someone should build this." Going to go check that out yesterday. Thanks.

I believe Steam is dabbling with desktop software as well.

So far it's pretty limited selection and mostly focused on media creation or game development, though there a (very small) handful of other apps included.