Apple ending development of Aperture with Photos for OS X on the horizon
Professional imaging software no longer in Apple’s plans, but Adobe seems poised to pounce
At WWDC this year, Apple revealed that the Photos app on iOS will makes its way to OS X Yosemite in early 2015 with photo editing and cross-platform syncing features in tow. What we didn’t know then is that Apple intends to axe Aperture as a result.
The professional Mac photo editing and management software will cease to be a growing concern for Apple, a spokesperson told TechCrunch today: “With the introduction of the new Photos app and iCloud Photo Library, enabling you to safely store all of your photos in iCloud and access them from anywhere, there will be no new development of Aperture.”
Luckily, Aperture libraries will migrate over to Photos (pictured)—itself replacing iPhoto in OS X—but it seems unlikely that the new, free option will contain the same extensive tools that power users have come to expect from Aperture.
For its part, competitor Adobe sees the opportunity and plans to seize it. “Put simply we’re doubling down on our investments in Lightroom and the new Creative Cloud Photography plan,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president of products, digital imaging at Adobe in a blog post today. “[We] are committed to helping interested iPhoto and Aperture customers migrate to our rich solution across desktop, device and web workflows.”
Apple launched Aperture in 2005, and its most recent notable updates came last autumn with the introduction of iOS 7-related functionality. While Apple seems intent on leaving pro photo editing software to other companies going forward, it reportedly has no plans to bail on development of other professional software like Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro.
[Sources: TechCrunch, Adobe]
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Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer 
