Quicken 2015 Switches From Mac App Store to Direct Updates
To everyone who thinks the Mac App Store makes installing updates quick and easy[…]
Quicken Mac 2015 updates are no longer distributed via the App Store. To install the latest version of Quicken Mac 2015 if you purchased from the App Store, you need to download Quicken Utility, which will install a version of Quicken Mac 2015 that has the ability to install updates without using the App Store.
[…]
You may be prompted to enter an administrator user name and password. This is required to replace the application you installed from the App Store with the new version that was downloaded.
And the root cause for this wonderful user experience: no paid upgrades on the Mac App Store…
The point is you can’t add paid upgrades if you’re in the App Store, so Intuit had to leave or go bankrupt.
Quicken 2016 is a separate product in the Mac App Store, presumably so that it could be a paid upgrade. So it makes sense to remove Quicken 2015 from the store to avoid confusion. Then there is no way to ship updates via the store, so we get this 14-step procedure.
Note that I had no idea that critical security updates were available because I relied on the Mac App Store[…]
With Quicken 2015 removed from sale, there’s no way for the store to notify customers. And Intuit can’t e-mail them because only Apple knows who they are. The Mac App Store version of Quicken could periodically check Intuit’s server for news about important issues, but Apple forbids apps from offering updates that are available outside of the store.
Best not to buy a tax app from the store, in case it goes unusable April 14
Update (2015-11-24): Wil Shipley:
You’ve created a marketplace that actively punishes developers for maintaining their software[…] You are losing the innovators. You are losing the developers who are actually loyal to your platform.
Not to say that Apple losing in this scenario means that developers win. It’s a lose lose, unfortunately. Who loses most? Uncertain.
the answer is always the customers. They lose the convenience of the App Store or access to high quality apps
Update (2015-11-25): I want to be clear that I’m not criticizing the way Intuit’s updater works. It looks like it’s about as straightforward as could be. You essentially download an app, launch it, and then follow the normal Sparkle prompts. The large number of steps is because the instructions are very clear, which is a good idea because customers following them may not be familiar with how to download apps outside of the Mac App Store.
3 Comments RSS · Twitter
Lack of upgrade pricing, certificate refresh madness, sandboxing issues that stop power apps, stupid policies, one-week-minimum review times, app censorship, no way to contact users or respond to reviews, lack of parity with the iOS store… we've been talking about this crap for almost 5 years. They could address all of these things, but they've already broken the trust of any dev who has left the store. The fundamental problem hasn't changed: you give up 30% and a piece of your sanity jumping through an ever-changing opaque process you have no hope of changing.
The Mac App Store: for apps that fits within Apple's narrow scope of what they think should be there. "Only Apple could do this".
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