[akadien]

History with iOS suggests a level playing field will be very short-lived. Once a couple of indie developers hit it big with MacFart desktop apps (don't hate - a friend who bought an iPad for Christmas is proudest of a fart app), the big developers will rush in, crowd the store with marginally higher quality apps compared to the indie developers with fewer features than before, and dominate.

[brudgers]

I don't believe the iOS model is necessarily the appropriate analog. There were no established iOS applications when the Appstore started. That's not the case with the Mac platform where there are many established products which because of implementation will not be eligible for the MacAppStore due to the implementation restrictions on applications.

In addition, many dual platform [Win/OSX] applications might take a 30% margin hit because of Apple's cut. Such companies face the prospect of either raising their price on all their products and thus loosing any cost advantage; forgoing the appstore altogether and missing a distribution channel; or providing different pricing depending on platform and potentially alienating Mac customers. Companies which have long supported the Mac such as Adobe and Nemetschek AG in particular face these issues.