Apple may not be taking part in CES, but that doesn't mean that the world's biggest tech company is going to just sit back and let its rivals bask in the news coverage limelight.

The Mac App Store is set to open its doors for business today (6 January) with many analysts predicting a 9am PST launch time - so 5pm here in Blighty.

“The App Store revolutionised mobile apps”, said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “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 6 January”. 

The Mac App Store is a free download for Mac OS X Snow Leopard users. In it you'll be able to "browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, view staff favourites, search categories and read customer ratings and reviews".

One of the first big name apps that is set to land is Twitter for Mac. Razorianfly grabbed a screenshot of the re-branded Tweetie 2.0 app, and declared that it will launch as the official micro-blogging app when the new App Store opens.

The Mac App Store can be found at www.apple.com/mac/app-store/.

Update: It's live now.