Apple will no longer develop Aperture or iPhoto, OS X Yosemite Photos app to serve as replacement

Posted:
in macOS edited October 2014
Apple on Friday revealed that development on Aperture, its professional-grade photo editing application, has ceased, leaving Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro as its only remaining flagship pro-oriented Mac apps.


Image via TechCrunch.


The news was broken to Jim Dalrymple of The Loop, who also revealed that iPhoto, Apple's consumer-level photo app, will be discontinued as well.

Both applications are due to be replaced by Apple's forthcoming Photos application, which will be included with iOS 8 and eventually bundled with OS X Yosemite, although the Mac version isn't set to launch until early 2015.

Apple did make it clear that development of Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro will continue.

"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," said Apple in its statement. "When Photos for OS X ships next year, users will be able to migrate their existing Aperture libraries to Photos for OS X."

The company also said in a statement to TechCrunch that it will provide compatibility updates to Aperture, allowing it to run on OS X Yosemite. However, further support will not exist after that.

Apple also said it is working with Adobe to help users transition to its Lightroom app for Mac.

Included with the reports was a new picture of the OS X Photos application, as seen above. From the picture, it would appear that the application has a "prosumer" layout. The app is also shown with a darker user interface, which is different from the predominantly white app shown off at the Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, as shown below.




Aperture hasn't seen a major update since 2010, when version 3.0 of the suite launched with 64-bit support, along with "Faces" and "Places" for sorting pictures. Its chief competitor for professional photographers is Adobe's Lightroom.

As for iPhoto, its last major update came in 2011, as part of the iLife '11 suite release. iPhoto also debuted on the iPad in 2012, and later came to Apple's iPhone for more advanced photo editing on the go.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 219
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Well, the Aperture news is surprising and disappointing. Hopefully this means Apple will be buying Adobe.
  • Reply 2 of 219
    dgnr8dgnr8 Posts: 196member
    Glad I moved to Lightroom, not that I trust Adobe....
  • Reply 3 of 219
    Damn... I don't use either one (I prefer GIMP for cross-platform compatibility), but there's a lot of folks who do professionally. I know a few, and I bet they're all going to say the same thing:"WTF?"

    Anyone know how similar/familiar the Photos app is interface and file-format-wise?
  • Reply 4 of 219
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Damn... I don't use either one (I prefer GIMP for cross-platform compatibility), but there's a lot of folks who do professionally. I know a few, and I bet they're all going to say the same thing:"WTF?"

    Anyone know how similar/familiar the Photos app is interface and file-format-wise?
    I don't think the Photos app exists yet. Apple gave a slight preview at WWDC but said it won't be available until next year.
  • Reply 5 of 219
    initiatorinitiator Posts: 104member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post



    Well, the Aperture news is surprising and disappointing. Hopefully this means Apple will be buying Adobe.



    I completely agree. I recently upgraded to Aperture because iPhoto just doesn't cut it in terms of functionality for a large photo library. This is even more surprising because the new Photos app doesn't seem to be anymore than a retooled iPhoto with a new name. It isn't a true comparison. Apple should just come out and say is that they are abandoning the professional photo software market entirely. That would be more honest. I'm sure there will be people who say, "You can still use Aperture.". But, the question will be, for how long? At some point in the future, it may no longer be compatible with some future version of OS X.

     

    I find this decision strange. With the introduction of the new Mac Pro, Apple seemed to have affirmed its commitment to the pro market. Abandoning one of their pro apps just doesn't make much sense. I could see if they decided to discontinue the Mac Pro and all pro apps entirely to focus only on consumers. But, that's not what they did.

  • Reply 6 of 219
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    Features you love will be removed.

    Then they will be added back in.

    Advice to Aperture users:

    1. Take a deep breath.

    2. Send feedback to apple.com/feedback once Photos is out, telling them which missing Aperture features (if any) are important to you.

    3. Keep using Aperture until Photos can meet your needs. Aperture still exists.

    4. I hear good things about Lightroom. Which is surreal to me, since everything I have personally experienced from Adobe in recent years has been negative! But it's nice to have options.
  • Reply 7 of 219
    splifsplif Posts: 603member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Penguinisto View Post



    Damn... I don't use either one (I prefer GIMP for cross-platform compatibility), but there's a lot of folks who do professionally. I know a few, and I bet they're all going to say the same thing:"WTF?"



    Anyone know how similar/familiar the Photos app is interface and file-format-wise?

    Pros are already being forced into Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription model where Lightroom is available as part of the package.

  • Reply 8 of 219

    Boo... Although, to be fair, I've thought about moving to Lightroom anyway especially with their new mobile iPad version.

     

    Anyone know how easy it is to migrate one's Aperture library to Lightroom?

  • Reply 9 of 219
    dreyfus2dreyfus2 Posts: 1,072member

    Shit. While there was really no development here for years, it was still the best option for RAW organisation and basic editing on the Mac, Lightroom is abysmal in this regard, and their module based workflow is absolutely not for me.

     

    Let's hope that Photos will not be a completely dumbed down solution, but if it swaps Aperture's fine library and backup handling for the cloud, I have little interest.

  • Reply 10 of 219
    kozchriskozchris Posts: 209member
    Probably everything from Aperture will be available in the new Photos app. Everyone will get the Pro tools for free if true. I wouldn't worry until we see what the Photos app will do.
  • Reply 11 of 219
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    I knew there was some reason why I never bought Aperture. Tempted to, never did. Mostly because I could do pretty much all I needed to do with iPhoto plus Pixelmator. Aperture's batch processing workflow was pretty cool, but I'd still rarely ever use it, and if I really wanted to, I could write an Automator script for iPhoto and Pixelmator or something.

    Long-term, Apple needs software partners. They will probably benefit more from having 3rd party pro apps on OS X than they would if they sold pro apps themselves. For example, as much as Adobe's bloatware sucks, it's become the de facto standard. Adobe is the Microsoft of creatives.
  • Reply 12 of 219
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    I wish this photo app comes earlier
    iPhoto at first was good now meh
    Can't really work with external hd with airport
    I wish it could upgrade airport to better work with external hd
    Can't wait hope it comes WITH Yosemite at no addition $$$$
  • Reply 13 of 219
    This is not a surprise, given we haven't had a major Aperture update in years.
  • Reply 14 of 219
    clemynxclemynx Posts: 1,552member
    The problems arises that the iOS version won't have all the functions that are in the OSX version.

    They are using the same heart icon as Beats to show favorites. I think it's no coincidence.
  • Reply 15 of 219
    paulmjohnsonpaulmjohnson Posts: 1,380member

    As long as Photos is a sharp improvement on iPhoto, with a lot of the Aperture features included, I don't actually mind.

     

    My only gripe is that if Photos is more like iPhoto than Aperture, it leaves you with little choice as a "prosumer".  I'm told that Lightroom is pretty good, but I really object to having to subscribe to software.

  • Reply 16 of 219
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by initiator View Post

     

    I'm sure there will be people who say, "You can still use Aperture.". But, the question will be, for how long? At some point in the future, it may no longer be compatible with some future version of OS X.


     

    True, however I am still running Final Cut Express 3.5 without issue. I recently had to do a clean install and it was a PITA because, while the app itself is Universal, the installer is PowerPC. I had to install the content from each disk manually on the command-line. But the application itself still works just as well today as it did in 2006 (under 10.5 Leopard).

     

    I'm not saying there aren't architectural changes taking place in OS X that won't obsolete Aperture tomorrow, but there's a good bet it will still function for some years to come.

     

    The bigger issue is how much functionality you lose by sticking with a product that hasn't seen a significant update in about four years. I love Aperture's free workflow environment but have considered switching to Lightroom for some features that are missing in Aperture. Now I guess I will take the plunge.

  • Reply 17 of 219
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member

    Wow, this is pretty shocking. iPhoto I can definitely understand, keeping both would create too much confusion, redundancy, and complications. But Aperture? Seems that serves a completely different use. It does not even come with OSX, its an optional paid download, so I dont understand the need to eliminate it. There's probably alot we don't know, lately Apple has shown renewed focus on its pro apps, and I dont see them just dropping this with no alternative. 

  • Reply 18 of 219
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member
    Lightroom is good image quality. That Photos screenshot looks surprisingly promising.
  • Reply 19 of 219
    richard getzrichard getz Posts: 1,142member

    Although surprising that Apple is leaving the Pro market after releasing their new Mac Pro, more surprising is the fact they are leaving the "i" for just Photos. I wonder if this is going to be a broader move across all apps. 

     

    Buying Adobe would be really cool and I think fits well with Apple. Starts with A, ends with E, same amount of letters... :) 

  • Reply 20 of 219
    spinozaspinoza Posts: 15member
    What will be the difference between Photos for OS X and iPhoto on the Mac?
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