By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 09:00 AM EST (06:00 AM PST)

Apple announced on Thursday that the Mac App Store for Mac OS X Snow Leopard will debut with both free and paid applications for download on Jan. 6, 2011.

In a press release, Apple said the Mac App Store will make discovering, installing and updating Mac apps easier than ever. The software download destination will be available in 90 countries at launch, and will feature paid and free apps in categories like Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity and Utilities.

"The App Store revolutionized mobile apps," Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said. "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 January 6."

The Mac App Store will allow users to browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what's hot, view staff favorites, search categories and read customer ratings and reviews. Like on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, users can purchase, download and install apps in just one click and start using them immediately.

Purchased apps can run on all personal Macs and updates are delivered directly through the Mac App Store, making it easy to keep apps up to date. The Mac App Store will be available to Mac OS X Snow Leopard users as a free download through Software Update.

Mac developers set the price for their apps, keep 70 percent of the sales revenue, are not charged for free apps and do not have to pay hosting, marketing or credit card fees. To find out more about developing for the Mac App Store visit developer.apple.com/programs/mac.

In November, AppleInsider exclusively reported that the Mac App Store would debut in January 2011, and the launch of the service would also see the release of Apple's new iWork '11 productivity suite.

Apple announced the Mac App Store in October, at a media event where it also unveiled the new MacBook Air models. While it is launching with Snow Leopard, the new Mac App Store will also be an integral part of the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, set to launch in the summer of 2011.