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The status of the Apple Mac in the world of desktop gaming has received a serious boost in the arm with news that alongside the release of the next version of OS X – officially called OS X 10.7 Lion – Apple will for the first time bring its popular digital retail portal App Store to the desktop brand.
Though there will no doubt be releases in the future that are universal across Apple’s many hardware platforms, there will initially at least be fundamental differences – for instance, Mac apps will not able to rely on the same touch interfaces that characterise its portable cousins.
In fact, speaking at the Apple press conference tonight, Apple CEO Steve Jobs went as far as saying that "touch surfaces want to be horizontal", dismissing the potential of the tech on traditional home displays.
However, Mac Apps will have some things in common with those found on iPhone and iPad.
They will auto save, resume on launch, install automatically onto the dock, update autonomously, be downloaded with a single click and will offer the same 70/30 revenues split between Apple and its legion of developers.
Apps will be selected via the Launchpad, an iPhone/iPad-like interface layer that appears above the standard OS.
The Mac App store, which will operate as a desktop app itself, will launch "within 90 days" and will be compatible on both OS X Lion and the most recent version of the software, 10.6 Snow Leopard.
