Apple Mac App Store to open in January

Apple will launch the Mac App Store on 6 January and will it available in 90 countries straight away.

The App Store experience will be brought to Mac OS X users and will feature free and paid-for apps covering a range of categories, including education, games and productivity.

The store, which had been announced by Apple earlier in the year, works in the same way as on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Developers get 70 per cent of sales revenue from their apps and are not charged for free apps.

"The App Store revolutionised mobile apps," said Apple chief executive (CEO) Steve Jobs.

"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 6 January."

Developers were able to start posting apps for the store in November.

Apple is due to have another big year of launches in 2011, with the latest operating system, nicknamed Lion, expected to be made available in the summer.

The next iteration of the iPad is also rumoured to be ready for February, just in time to go head-to-head against the RIM Playbook.

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.