In an e-mail message to registered developers, the company stated that as of January 6, 2011—the date the —the Mac OS X Downloads site will "no longer offer apps." The company suggests that developers should instead submit their software to the Mac App Store, which Apple says will be "the best destination for users to discover, purchase, and download your apps."

The site has long been a popular destination for Mac users looking for third-party software, as it has provided a semi-curated library of software, browsable by category, date, popularity, or the ever-coveted-by-developers Staff Picks.

The announcement shouldn't come as a surprise, given Apple's recent focus on the Mac App Store. Indeed, it would be quite un-Apple-like for the company to offer both a software store and a software-listing Website. However, the move is sure to raise some hackles in the developer community, given that The Mac App Store already presented a marketing challenge for developers of such software; they'll now be even more reliant on the Mac media, word of mouth, and other Mac-software sites such as and .

It's unclear if Apple will continue to use the Mac OS X Downloads site to promote its own Mac software, or if the company will just roll such promotion into the .

The full text of the e-mail message is below.