Software jungle
Those unsatisfied by the 'curated' content of Apple's Mac App Store should take a look at Amazon's just-launched Mac Downloads Store. The focus on 'proper' applications means the selection available isn't as broad as Apple's, which has a huge number of iPhone-like disposable apps, in addition to fuller-featured pieces of software, but the applications on offer from Amazon can't be found on the App Store.
Notable offerings on Amazon's store include the applications QuickBooks and Office 2011, and video games Civilization V and Borderlands. Prices are on par with physical versions of the available, so there isn't a massive incentive to buy a digital form other than the convenience - unless you're still using dial-up, in which case physical postage may be quicker than downloading.
Like its other download stores, Amazon's Mac digital outlet offers users future downloads from an online library, tied to your Amazon account, so if you move to a new Mac you'll be able to reinstall all of your purchased programs. Unlike the iTunes Store, the Mac App Store allows re-downloads, so there's no advantage to Amazon here, but it's nonetheless a useful ability.
Because of the different natures of the two stores - Amazon's focussing more on full-featured programs and Apple's on just about anything - the two aren't so much in competition as they are a complement to each other. Hopefully as Amazon expands its library of available downloads, it can start offering some competition to the App Store, which currently has no compelling rival.
There's no UK-specific version of the Amazon Mac Downloads Store as yet, but we expect Amazon to make the jump across the Atlantic soon.
