With the January opening of the Mac App Store, discussion has ensued regarding the effect it would have on small developers. Many argued that the store would be a way for small vendors to gain visibility. This would, in turn, increase their business. In fact, the Mac App Store has proven quite the opposite for GamesForOne.

Several issues have combined to decrease our business. The first is that free apps enjoy increased visibility in the App Store as they have their own category. The rankings receive equal billing with paid apps, and therefore customers gravitate to the free apps first just as you would expect. Many customers seem to feel the free offering is “good enough” and therefore do not search further for a solitaire game. Potential sales are lost. How is this different from the previous Apple Downloads pages? Before, free apps moved down the list as new releases of other games were posted. The effect was that a new release, paid or free, enjoyed the spotlight at the top of the listings for a time. In the App Store, the free apps enjoy a never ending spotlight.

There has already been a race to the bottom in the Mac App Store. Prices are too low overall. For example, one competing solitaire game vendor that charges $30 for their product in direct web sales, released it for $5 in the Mac App Store. Some would argue that was a bold move to garner share. However, combined with the first issue I just presented regarding free products, there is simply not that much money flowing for paid apps in the Card Games section of the Mac App Store regardless of price. Another well known vendor released a 99 cent game from the opening. Surely they are suffering a fall in overall income because we have not observed enough paid app volume to make up for lost sales at previous price points.

How can we make such a judgment about the sales volume? Solitaire Plus enjoyed the #1 position in the Top Grossing lists for the Card Games section for several days back in January. We must have enjoyed a windfall, right? Not so. Our profit on those days at #1 was less than $150 per day. And the drop-off once you fall out of the top spot is severe. The normal average per day is far less. Our game can still crack the top 5 in the Top Grossing list with only five sales in a day!

The App Store does indeed provide a way for small vendors to gain visibility. One person in the Far East can produce an app, post it for a ridiculously low price in the App Store, and take business share. $50 per day profit for such a person is probably a windfall. This means that App Store customers enjoy lower prices. It also means that it is harder for US vendors to compete as we have a far higher cost of living and operating expenses (can you say TAXES and state/local FEES).

The result? Cheap imports are taking over the Mac software business just as they dominate the shelves of your local discount store and US jobs are lost. Does that worry you? Perhaps not, but the day will come when your job will be at risk from the same economic forces. No industry is safe.

Have some thoughts about the Mac App Store? Drop us a note and let us know your thoughts. Feel like we are bad sports? Let us know that too and what we can do to gain your business. If you think our price is too high, tell us at what price you would buy.

We purchased a HP Envy 15-1067NR from the on-line Microsoft Store back in June. The specs on the Envy are impressive: Core i7 quad-core processor, 15.6” 1920x1080 LED display, 6GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830 with HDMI output, Gigabit Ethernet, Wifi G/N, and Beats sound. All of this in a thin 5.2 lb package! It was a very impressive laptop spec-wise and we were able to snag a 40% discount coupon for the Microsoft Store which made the deal even better. The coupon was accepted on checkout and the laptop was promptly shipped.

Our first impression was good as the packaging of the Envy was spiffy compared to the usual dull PC boxes. The laptop had a nice overall appearance with its magnesium skin and it booted up and was ready to use in short order. The LED display is very nice (as good as any we have seen) and the performance seemed all-around snappy.

Then as we began to actually put the laptop to use we started noticing the shortcomings. First, the laptop would get really hot especially in the keyboard area. Under heavy processing load it would get quite hot and uncomfortable to the touch. It never overheated to the point of shutting off as the magnesium skin seemed to conduct and dissipate the heat well, but it definitely was a heat producer. We also found that the touchpad was inconsistent. At times the pad would respond as expected and then sometimes it would miss our gestures -- it was not as consistent in response as the Apple MacBooks for example.

Some customers of the Envy have reported problems with the “blank screen” issue but we never experienced that in a few days of use. Some also complained that the palm-rest area around the trackpad was inadequate and would “creak” and “pop” with palm pressure. We noticed some of that but did not find it to be a critical issue.

However, the issue that resulted in our returning the laptop for refund was related to the battery. The built-in battery was insufficient for this laptop as it was only possible to squeeze about 2 hours operation from it (even less under moderate processing load). The package included a second “slice” battery that was supposed to attached to the bottom of the laptop. This slice battery added about 2 or 3 lbs of weight which negated the weight advantage of the laptop itself. When we actually tried to use the slice battery we found that it was a poorly engineered fit. The battery did not positively engage with the laptop body and it allowed the contacts to move and apparently short-circuit in use. We found that the movement of the slice battery sometimes caused the laptop to lose power and immediately shutoff. One such shutoff resulted in corruption of the hard drive to the point that it was not recoverable and we were forced to completely restore the hard drive from backup.

When we contacted HP Support we were told the laptop would have to be shipped to HP for “repair”. At this point we decided to return the laptop to the Microsoft Store as they have a 14 day full return policy. The Microsoft Store support personnel were very helpful and responsive and the return was promptly processed with full credit issued. We have nothing but positive praise for the Microsoft Store.

We wanted to like the HP Envy. It was a lot of laptop for a very reasonable price. In the end we decided to pay the premium for an Apple 17” MacBook Pro. We find the MacBook Pro compares in raw performance to the Envy but it does not suffer the heat issues and the battery life is far superior. However, it comes with a price!