Divvy, Cinch, and Hibari are new enough to the market that it's worth the time and revenue hit to their respective developers to help customers transition into the Mac App Store. Remember: on top of all the tedious busywork that offers like these create, Mizage and Irraddiated are going lose 30 percent on each (re-)sale that they help process. However, the Mac App Store potentially offers better exposure, giving those developers a chance to make up the money they lose by selling more copies of their apps.

Unsurprisingly, none of the developers of more established apps that spoke to wanted to go on record with their answers. But for apps that have been around for a while, the consensus among developers is that doing a full license swap is just not possible.

For one thing, Apple doesn't allow nearly enough coupon codes to cover the installed base of apps which have been around for years. And even for large shops that might arguably have the manpower to process the swaps, the process would be extremely complex and time consuming. Plus, as a couple developers pointed out, credit card processors tend to get spooked easily, and they have a penchant for cutting merchants off if they see sudden bursts of refunds. Toss in the inevitable schemers and the prospects of 30 percent of sales from the last couple of years going up in smoke, and even Lando Calrissian wouldn't sign on for this deal.

If you're just dying to shift your existing licenses into the Mac App Store, you may largely be out of luck right now. But developers are very aware of the situation, and they're paying a lot of attention to how this all unfurls.