Dec 6, 2010 10:50 GMT  ·  By

Apple is reportedly planning an early launch of the Mac App Store, a new service announced by Steve Jobs during an October 20 event dubbed “Back to the Mac.” The Mac App Store is set to replicate the success of the widely popular, existent iOS App Store available via iTunes.

The folks at appletell.com claim to have been in touch with “an inside source” which reportedly claimed that “Apple is targeting a Monday, December 13th launch of the Mac App Store.”

The Cupertino, California-based Apple promised to have the Mac App Store ready for launch in about 90 days since the company’s CEO gave a sneak peek of the service in October.

This person allegedly told the site that Cupertino “told developers to have their software prepared for a launch as early as Monday the 6th of this month,” yet it admits “[it] would be shocked if that happened at this point.”

Although Apple is yet to issue an official statement on the exact launch date of the Mac App Store, Appletell claims to have learned of “a push” to have the service launched ahead of Christmas.

The rush was allegedly imposed by none other than Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, who reportedly wanted a release even before December 6th.

With this deadline now missed, December 13th is the next target everyone is keeping their eyes on.

Likely citing the same inside source, Appletell concludes its rumor by noting that “Apple appears to be way ahead of schedule on the Mac App Store.”

Last week, Softpedia opined that Apple’s Mac App Store would have a resounding impact on the industry.

Apple is known to have imposed strict new rules for the first application developers to be featured in the venue, including a clean interface with certain file system usage requirements, and no demos, or trial versions of their respective software titles.