Apple Updates Mac App Store with OS X Lion-Dedicated Section

A major new section has been added to the Mac App Store where Apple customers can download tons of Macintosh software both free and paid, third-party or Apple-developed. The new section is entirely dedicated to those running the latest version of Apple’s Mac OS.

Appropriately named ‘Apps Enhanced for OS X Lion’, the new section contains applications that are… well, enhanced for Lion.

“OS X Lion is packed with innovative features including Multi-Touch Gestures, Full-Screen Apps, Resume, Auto-Save, and Versions,” says Apple.

“Here are the apps and games currently taking advantage of these new enhancements.”

By default (apps shown by ‘featured’) the list begins with Apple’s own productivity applications - Pages, Numbers, and Keynote - followed by those in the iLife suite - iMovie, GarageBand, and iPhoto.

Aperture, Apple’s 80 dollar photography software is right next to them.

But these apps already made total sense for OS X Lion. After all, they’re Apple’s.

There are, however, numerous third-party applications that take full advantage of the aforementioned key features of Lion.

These include ScreenFlow; Reeder; the powerful and popular note-taking app, Evernote; Sparrow, the alternative email client for thousands of Mac users out there; the official Twitter Mac app; Autodesk’s all-new Motion FX entertainment app; the old MacFamily Tree which puts a new spin on genealogy, and many others.

However, there seem to be only 48 applications (at the time of writing) in the Mac App Store that fully take advantage of Lion’s features.

Games only count two at the moment. Most featured apps fall in the Productivity category, followed by Reference, Photography, Utility, News, Entertainment, and Lifestyle.

“With the Mac App Store, getting the apps you want on your Mac has never been easier,” says Apple. “No more boxes, no more disks, no more time-consuming installation.”

“Click once to download and install any app on your Mac. The Mac App Store is now available as a software update for any Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard,” according to the company now run by Tim Cook.

The Mac App Store is available on Macs running OS X 10.6.6 Snow Leopard (and newer versions) and ships as a default (pre-installed) application with OS X 10.7 Lion.