Pssst - I guess that the Mac Store is not doing nearly as good as Apple wants to make us believe. And chances are good that Apple is failing to turn "real" computers into Teletubby consumer products aka iOS. Do you know anybody using the Mac Store? I do not.
So. Imagine Steve Jobs sitting in his office. Lonely. Thinking hard how to make the Mac App Store a success story. Thinking about ways how to force those geek Apple users (imagine Apple users at Google) to use the Mac App Store.
And - booom! - Here we go. Steve has a fantastic idea:
Let's sell the next version of the OS over the Mac App Store only. And force our customers to do so. No retailers. No boxes. Only Mac App Store.
And the pricing suggests that this is the only reason. I mean - Mac Lion is no revolution. Lion has slightly more visible features than Snow Leopard (aka Leopard Service Pack). But it's even cheaper than the Service Pack for Leopard. Plus - he really annoys all retailers selling Apple products. But he is willing to accept that.
So. Steve wants to promote his Mac App Store. My 2 cents.