Sketch Blog – Leaving the Mac App Store

What’s happening: @bohemiancoding, maker of the award-winning Mac design app Sketch, has announced that all future versions of Sketch will no longer be distributed or sold through the Mac App Store.

Why it matters: They aren’t the first, and they won’t be the last. Just this year, Bare Bones Software, Mac developer since 1991, is not putting the latest versions of its text editor BBEdit and organization app Yojimbo in the Mac App Store, and Panic made the same call with its web development app Coda. None of these developers are slouches: all the apps described are often recognized by Apple and lauded by developers and designers that use Macs.

It’s important to note that, unlike the iPhone and iPad, it’s possible to install any app from the internet on a Mac; developers don’t have to use the Mac App Store. But Apple has clearly positioned it as the best way to distribute apps, using it for all of its software including pro-level apps like Final Cut and Logic. But apps like Sketch and BBEdit are considered quintessential Mac apps, apps that are the reason many stay with the Mac; and the fact that these apps can’t exist on the Mac App Store is troubling.

But there is hope. As Bohemian Coding mentioned in the blog post:

We know there are a great number of people at Apple who care deeply about the Mac, and if things change, we’re not ruling out a return in the longer term.

Fingers crossed.

Hat tip to Dan Moren at Six Colors for the Bare Bones and Panic info..