Apple Launching Mac App Store on January 6, '11

There's an App for Mac.

App Stores are all the rage today. They've grown and flourished in the smartphone environment, and now they're invading your personal computer. Apple's going to be bringing its App Store model from iTunes to Macs.

Apple today announced that the Mac App Store will open for business on Thursday, January 6. The Mac App Store will be available in 90 countries at launch and will feature paid and free apps in categories like Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity and Utilities.

"The App Store revolutionized mobile apps," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can't wait to get started on January 6."

Purchased apps can run on all of a user's personal Macs and updates are delivered directly through the Mac App Store. The Mac App Store will be available to Mac OS X Snow Leopard users as a free download through Software Update.

Mac developers set the price for their apps, keep 70 percent of the sales revenue, are not charged for free apps and do not have to pay hosting, marketing or credit card fees.

Of course, Mac users can still install applications the traditional way without any kind of App Store, but this will be a new avenue for Apple to get in on the action of software sales.