Thank god there are some developers who have the balls to stop with this "Store" app distribution bonanza brought by the mobile phone. Someone should give Microsoft a hint.
The "store" was really great for small/solo developers to release an application. It's really expensive to setup your own server to distribute an application. It's also really annoying to have to patch your apps without a store.
What's changed is that there are lots of open source options for distribution and patching, so developers need a "store" less and less.
> It's really expensive to setup your own server to distribute an application.
I haven't found it expensive at all. I've been selling apps outside App Stores for over a decade and never needed more than my $9/mth shared web hosting. Accepting credit cards is even easier & cheaper through someone like Fastspring or Kagi, who only take 8 - 9% instead of Apple's 30%.
> It's also really annoying to have to patch your apps without a store.
On the Mac, Sparkle is your friend for auto-updates, it's been around since 2006 (long before the Mac App Store existed): http://sparkle-project.org
On Windows, there's WinSparkle, though it isn't quite as elegant: http://winsparkle.org
I don't disagree, there were always solutions. The app store just made it easier than the alternatives. But now the alternatives are easier than the store.
I'm guessing you don't have a source for that because I would be shocked if it were any less than 99%. It would be wonderful to see genuine rivals, offering alternative business models.
Yes, there are others, but I imagine (I would like to be wrong) that Amazon is the only one with any significant marketshare. Maybe something in China.
