MacUpdate: State of the Apps - July 20, 2011
Not long after MacUpdate’s launch about 15 years ago, Apple released Mac OS 8, its first operating system release to bear the Mac OS moniker. Back then, Apple was in the midst of a platform migration (from 68k to PowerPC) and developers were building fat binaries of their software that would run on both architectures. Mac OS 8.1 was the last version to run on the 68k architecture, but developers worked to support both for as long as possible.
Today, Apple released Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and with it the bell tolls for PowerPC users and apps. More than five years since the first Intel-based Macs debuted, Lion is the second major release to only support Intel chips and the first to completely axe support for PowerPC binaries.
With that in mind, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at where Mac software listings stand today with regards to what platforms and Mac OS X versions they support.
The numbers in the table below are cumulative, meaning the “last 30 months” column includes all the listings from the “last 24 months”, plus six months further back in time (we don’t save snapshots of the MacUpdate database). They represent all the listings on MacUpdate that have been added or updated during that time. If a listing was updated multiple times, only the most recent revision is counted.
Observations
For most users, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion’s lack of support for PowerPC-only apps will be inconsequential. The most significant and popular app that will no longer work under Lion is the Quicken Deluxe 2007, which was replaced with the Intel-only Quicken Essentials that many Deluxe users deem inferior.
But there are many other personal finance apps that run smoothly on Intel Macs (in fact, by coincidence we're selling one at 40%-off today).
For PowerPC Mac users, Lion's release is a non-event that will merely mark another milestone toward the end of life of their platform. While many of those Macs remain perfectly capable even by today's standards (and a vocal minority of them on MacUpdate are quick to remind developers who deprecate PowerPC support that they're still around), too many advancements have been made to Mac OS X and the APIs developers leverage to make continuing support of that platform possible.
For everyone else, Lion should be a very welcomed arrival, with significant performance enhancements and new APIs that will keep Mac apps among the most powerful, capable, and enjoyable to use in the world.
- Misha Sakellaropoulo, MacUpdate
Today, Apple released Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and with it the bell tolls for PowerPC users and apps. More than five years since the first Intel-based Macs debuted, Lion is the second major release to only support Intel chips and the first to completely axe support for PowerPC binaries.
With that in mind, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at where Mac software listings stand today with regards to what platforms and Mac OS X versions they support.
The numbers in the table below are cumulative, meaning the “last 30 months” column includes all the listings from the “last 24 months”, plus six months further back in time (we don’t save snapshots of the MacUpdate database). They represent all the listings on MacUpdate that have been added or updated during that time. If a listing was updated multiple times, only the most recent revision is counted.
Observations
- 98.5% of listings added or updated on MacUpdate in the last 6 months natively support the Intel platform; 97.7% of listings in the last 30 months natively support Intel
- Intel-only releases are now the majority, as is Mac OS X 10.6 as a minimum requirement (among new titles both numbers are much more pronounced)
- PowerPC-only titles (which won’t run on Lion) are an extremely small number
- there was a strong push towards 64-bit supported apps two years ago with the release of Mac OS X 10.6, but that figure has not kept up with the rate of growth in Intel and Mac OS X 10.6-required apps
For most users, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion’s lack of support for PowerPC-only apps will be inconsequential. The most significant and popular app that will no longer work under Lion is the Quicken Deluxe 2007, which was replaced with the Intel-only Quicken Essentials that many Deluxe users deem inferior.
But there are many other personal finance apps that run smoothly on Intel Macs (in fact, by coincidence we're selling one at 40%-off today).
For PowerPC Mac users, Lion's release is a non-event that will merely mark another milestone toward the end of life of their platform. While many of those Macs remain perfectly capable even by today's standards (and a vocal minority of them on MacUpdate are quick to remind developers who deprecate PowerPC support that they're still around), too many advancements have been made to Mac OS X and the APIs developers leverage to make continuing support of that platform possible.
For everyone else, Lion should be a very welcomed arrival, with significant performance enhancements and new APIs that will keep Mac apps among the most powerful, capable, and enjoyable to use in the world.
- Misha Sakellaropoulo, MacUpdate
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