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"365 days ago, Apple launched its new Mac OS X 10.6.6 operating system and delivered its desktop app marketplace, the Mac App Store.\r\n\r\nMac owners instantly gained access to more than 1,000 apps and amongst the new apps available on the store was\u00A0Twitter\u2019s first native Mac application\u00A0and a whole host of titles that had previously only been available via developer websites.\r\n\r\nWithin 24 hours of the marketplace launching,\u00A01 million apps had been downloaded. More recently, the company announced that the Mac App Store had topped\u00A0more than 100 million downloads\u00A0in less than a year, making it the \u201Clargest and fastest growing PC software store in the world\u201D.\r\n\r\nOver the course of the past year,\u00A0Apple has used its own platform to deliver updates to its software. Some were well received and some not so. In June, the company\u00A0released its popular video-editing tool\u00A0Final Cut Pro X on the\u00A0Mac App Store\u00A0with a $299.99/\u00A3179.99 price tag. With users excited to be able to download the new software in just a few clicks, the app quickly rocketed to the top of the Mac App Store charts.\r\n\r\nHowever, Apple\u2019s glory was\u00A0short-lived\u00A0after it soon became apparent that the new version of Final Cut Pro X wasn\u2019t meeting user expectations; support for older file-types was no longer available, functions became difficult to find and audio markers no longer worked \u201Cthe way they used to\u201D. This led to many customers leaving 1-star ratings and lengthy negative reviews on the Mac App Store \u2013 it even\u00A0got blasted by Conan O\u2019Brien.\r\n\r\nThe company closed comments on the Mac App Store and began acting on reviews,\u00A0issuing refunds\u00A0to those who had filed an official request using\u00A0Apple\u2019s Mac App Store Customer Service form.\r\n\r\nOn July 20, Apple utilised the Mac App Store to launch its latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)\u00A0for $29.99. The new operating system\u00A0offered\u00A0250\u00A0new features, and presented a significant upgrade for users of earlier OS X versions.\r\n\r\nFive months later, the company discussed the sales performance of Lion and its amazing growth as compared to its previous OS, Snow Leopard at an its iPhone 4S event. New CEO Tim Cook said that Lion had been downloaded more than six million times, representing an 80% increase on Snow Leopard installations at the time.\r\n\r\nIt's been a successful year for the Mac App Store; competitors have mobilised to create their own marketplaces, with Microsoft expected to launch its own Windows 8 app store later in the year. With developers able to submit their software and streamline updates, the end user knows exactly when updates are available and can search for new apps without having to perform a number of Google searches.\r\n\r\nWill Apple celebrate the first birthday of the Mac App Store? We don't know. As the company continues to iterate its services, who knows what the Mac marketplace will be like in another 12 months."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/01/06/the-mac-app-store-turns-1-year-old-today/>