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Home / News / Apple ending development of Aperture with Photos for OS X on the horizon

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]

READ MORE: Mac OS X Yosemite preview

Profile image of Andrew Hayward Andrew Hayward Freelance Writer

About

Andrew writes features, news stories, reviews, and other pieces, often when the UK home team is off-duty or asleep. I'm based in Chicago with my lovely wife, amazing son, and silly cats, and my writing about games, gadgets, esports, apps, and plenty more has appeared in more than 75 publications since 2006.

Areas of expertise

Video games, gadgets, apps, smart home