The Reality of the OSX App Store

My first foray into OSX was way back in 2008 with a MacBook Pro. I learned about the apps that were important to web development and when I got a new MacBook recently, I of course referenced the list of apps I had previously used. One of those is Transmit by Panic.com. It’s arguably one of the best FTP programs out there. The new OSX App Store made it easy to find, purchase and install it, so I did just that.

All was good until last night when I had noticed no updates in awhile to many of the apps that I had purchased via the App Store. I checked the version of Transmit and noticed it was v4.2. So I went over to Panic’s site to compare and noticed the latest version is v4.3.2. WTF? I emailed Panic and it turns out that they’ve submitted it to Apple for review but it hasn’t been approved yet. They also told me that I can’t transfer an App Store license to a direct download license. Ugh. :(

It made me realize that I had chosen comfort & ease-of-access over functionality and timeliness. I don’t blame Panic in any way for this. It’s my fault and I’ve learned a lesson. Going forward, I’ll be hard pressed to purchase apps from the OSX App Store. Maybe consumer needs are different & may not require keeping things updated but as a developer, I prefer to have bug fixes & features available to me as they come out.

For now, I’m stuck with Transmit v4.2. Still a great app; just not as great a v.4.3.2.

Update: Panic emailed me back and told me that Apple FINALLY approved the newest version after two weeks. Man I feel for application developers like Panic who have to deal with this.

Rey Bango

3 Comments

  1. Yes . . . thats why I try to buy apps directly from developers whenever possible.

  2. Thanks for the heads up Rey, I had been using Transmit for a while and will have to get the update.

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