Pro photographers abandoned by Apple?

14 years ago

“Since dropping out of MacWorld and most of the other big electronics/computer shows, WWDC (The World Wide Developer’s Conference) in San Francisco has become Apple’s most important venue for product announcements,” Scott Bourne writes for Photofocus. “The emphasis on mass market mobile is clear. Those of us in the professional photography community need to understand that we are no longer targets of Apple. They aren’t a pro apps company or a hardware company they are a mobile company. In so far as you are interested in mobile – then they are one to watch.”

Bourne writes, “There was a minor point release to Aperture (not really discussed at the keynote.) It offers a white balance brush, compatibility with the new retina display and a few other goodies, but it’s nowhere near the kind of upgrade that Lightroom got, moving from LR3x to LR4x. I’m officially done with Aperture – as of today my staff has begun the migration to LR4 and I won’t be switching back. Even if Apple does a major Aperture update, it’s going to be too late for me. I’m not a fan of their approach when it comes to the pro market and while it may make perfect sense for them from a business point of view, it doesn’t serve customers like me.”

“Aperture’s library now fully integrates with iPhoto’s library. Does that ring a bell with anyone but me? iPhoto is a purely consumer product. Aperture was originally touted, marketed and sold as a professional application and was managed by Apple’s pro apps team. Does anyone really think there’s a place for integration between a free consumer photo app that kids use in grade school and a pro app like Aperture?” Bourne writes. “This is like the Final Cut Pro debacle. Apple essentially has decided that the broader consumer market is more profitable so pro apps are history. I can’t and don’t blame them from a purely business point of view.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Lots of conclusions being jumped to, including claiming that the Mac Pro was dead even after Apple CEO Tim Cooke promised that Apple was working on a professional Mac for later next year. And FCP X is not a debacle. It’s quite the opposite, actually. Try to keep current.

And why shouldn’t consumer and pro apps share the same libraries? How do you expect interested consumers to become pros? Does it make sense to have the “consumer” and “pro” video, film, and photography apps completely separate and noninterchangeable or does it make more sense for them to share certain lowest common denominators in order to not only smooth the upgrade path, but to also improve support?

Writing as former “pro” video and film producers, videographers and editors, the so-called “pros” need to get over themselves. The “consumer” software and hardware available today runs rings around everything the “pros” had to work with for decades. It’s not about the tools you use, it’s about the results you produce.