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Apple shuts Aperture software, FCP X to follow in two years
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Aperture, Apple’s professionally minded photo editing software, will no longer operate on macOS after Mojave, the current version of the Mac operating system. The announcement was quietly made on an Apple support page that was spotted by MacRumors, which gives instructions on how users should import their images into either Adobe Lightroom or Apple Photos.

    As predicted, move to ARM based CPUs require Apple to get rid from all applications that do not generate big revenue, even ones where it had been 1-2 developers doing compatibility checks. Read - all pro or advanced apps.
    Later in 2019 you will already feel first winter winds around FCP X, and in 2020 they will start blowing constantly as Apple will be reducing developers count and moving them to other projects.

  • 5 Replies sorted by
  • zachnfinezachnfine

    Very old news, and nothing here that relates to ARM whatsoever.

    Aperture was abandoned by Apple back in 2014, it was never an application that really took over the professional photo market. Some of Aperture's features were moved into the free Photos app that comes with macOS.

    I miss Aperture, but the fact that Apple's putting no developer resources toward updating a product they haven't sold in 4 years has nothing to do with ARM, and even less to do with any of their other pro apps.

    There's still an entire team of developers, QA engineers, and project managers working on FCPX. And Apple just released a new codec that's completely geared towards professionals (Prores RAW). They may not approach media professionals in a way that some of us see as optimal, but these are the opposite of signs that Apple is giving up on the professional market.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @zachnfine

    Just read before write :-) Actually it has all to do with ARM, as Apple now remove even tiny resources they had on Aputure.

    I also never said that it is no team working on FCP X, yet FCP X will be among application greatly affected by transition and I am not sure if it will survive it at all in the form we know it now. Not only they introduced codec forced by RED (yep, all this zoo of codecs appeared due to lawyers of Red trying to save company using old patents), but they also removed support for lot of older codecs that goes in sync of removing people who remained in old QT team and QT part of FCP X and moving them to most important part of all company - writing new iOS apps for consumers.

    People like to dream on how nice and same it will be. It won't Apple does not and won't care for professionals anymore. This big consumer behemoth is falling down in extreme slow motion, but before it will touch mother Earth it'll do many nasty things for pro market.

  • zachnfinezachnfine

    Just read before write :-)

    I'm not arguing that Apple doesn't abandon pieces of software. I'm saying Aperture was dead long before ARM-based Macs became a glimmer in everyone's speculative imagination.

    The last software update to Aperture was in 2015 - there are NO developer resources devoted to it. OK maybe there's still a tiny piece of automated testing that tries to launch Aperture on every OS build, and for the next OS build that script is saying "nope". It's just dead software and any future platform hardware changes are irrelevant to the discussion. Apple could build future computers based on the Z80 and Aperture would still have died of other causes.

    Regarding pro-apps in general -- I suppose anyone continually saying "FCPX is about to die" is bound to be correct at some point, as software comes and software goes. The time doesn't appear to be now. I'm sure Apple will drop it at some point, but I don't think it will be because of the difficulty of porting it to new hardware.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @zachnfine

    Everyone knows that development team is years gone and no one did anything, but this year they collect even small amount of people who had been responsible for compatibility fixes and testing.

    You are also greatly overestimate automated testing :-)

    World where software used by big number of people just "goes" because some manager wanted few Ferrari is world that must be destroyed, with manager being hanged on the tree with burned Ferrari under this same tree.

  • kellar42kellar42

    I miss Aperture but I have no fear about FCPX being around in two years. I guess the rest of the company could be deceiving the pro-apps team, but other than that, I can't see it going.

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