A former colleague John Whitehead sent me an email to comment on my thoughts in the previous entry, What Does This $120 Price Drop Mean?. In his message he suggested another reason that Apple may have reduced the price, and how they could make up the difference… and that triggered a further thought that I wanted to share here.

Store Within an App

We’ve seen it on the iPhone/iPad app store. You buy (or download for free) a piece of software, and within that software, you can buy extra features. What if the future of Desktop software wasn’t far behind? Buy an application, and then within it, buy additional components, plug-ins, filters, etc.

The market is already there. There are dozens (hundreds?) of developers making plug-ins for Aperture, both for export and image editing, there are Adjustment Presets (I sell some!), and even book printer plug-ins. But right now, you have to dig all over the interent to find them. Sure some are listed on Apple’s website, but this is far from an exhaustive resource.

What if you had a store within Aperture itself? An easy way to see all the (Apple approved… so you know they’ve been vetted, just like the App store) plug-ins, presets, filters and more. Want more book layouts? Why not have hundreds of them available, some free, some paid? Export plug-ins? Filters? Presets? You name it, why not buy it from within the application itself?

Just like with the App Store, small developers can get noticed. Some kid in a garage with a brilliant idea and mad coding skillz can release a plugin for 99¢ and get rich overnight. Tried and true developers have another way to distribute, with zero inventory and overhead. And Apple makes 30%.

I’d imagine Apple has thought of this already, but just in case… now they have ;-)

-Joseph @ApertureExpert