Apple May Do Away With Boxed Software

Apple's Mac App Store might be the main source of purchasing software for Apple customers in the future. The success of the Mac App Store's launch could be ushering an era where Apple will only carry digital copies of software in their retail stores.

Evidence of Apple moving in that direction can be seen when you buy a new Mac:

When you purchase a Mac at an Apple Retail store an employee will help you setup your e-mail accounts, walk you through the Mac App Store, setup an iTunes account for you, and show you the basic pointers of owning a Mac. Some stores will even have dedicated Mac setup stations.

The new MacBook Air comes with a USB drive with reinstall software loaded on it. USB flash drives are pretty cheap now so it makes economical sense to use that instead of using DVD-ROMs. The boxed software also takes up valuable retail space from the more profitable and prominent iPods, iPhones, and Macs. It could lead to the eventual elimination of optical drives too since we would no longer need one with our USB flash drives carrying all our digital software.

[Via MacRumors]