I see that Leica are now bundling Light Room 4 with most of their cameras.
As the Adobe domination machine rolls on, what do we all think Apple might do to counteract it, if anything?
I think we will see iPhoto and Aperture merged in due course in order to streamline things from Apple's pov. Obviously they would find it more efficient to work on one photo package rather than two.
If I was them I would be seriously looking at partnering with (i.e. buying out!) Nik Software and getting in bed with Nikon as a result of acquiring Capture NX in effect. Then revise Aperture to be the only software that can read all the info in a NEF (which is what CNX is now) and get it bundled with Nikon cameras.
That would be my plan if I were The Leader!
Interesting, but I hope not. I don’t want to see Apple embrace and extend any more than I would Microsoft, Google, or Adobe.
I don’t think Apple has any plans to merge the two programs though. They haven’t done that with FCP(even though many argue that FCX is essentially iMoviePro now, but I think that opinion will change in time).
I think Apple may dramatically alter the interface and workflow, but I don’t see them dropping either or merging them.
I don’t think Apple really cares about Marketshare for image editing right now, since they now own the most popular camera in the world (iPhone). iMovie will be for that crowd, and I would not be surprised to see Apple enter the camera market at some point down the road, in which case, Aperture would be building towards that.
Apple has a lot of patents in the imaging sector and they’ve expressed interest in new technologies such as LF and new sensors. Would not be out of Apple’s prerogative to enter the camera market and turn it on it’s head the same way it did with the phone market.
Everyone said that Apple would never enter the phone market because it was saturated, mature, commodity, etc… and yet, look how that turned out?!
That’s true but there are already very obvious similarities between Aperture and iPhoto.
The whole movie thing is not my bag at all - one reason I have not ordered the Nikon D4 is because I simply do not want or need all that movie baggage added to my stills cameras.
If they are going to be doing any streamlining etc I do hope that they talk to a wide variety of users, not just a couple of big name wedding people or something. LR is seriously dominating the market as far as I can tell, so hopefully they will do something to offset that.
Right now I will settle for Fuji X-Pro 1 RAW support, as mine arrives Tuesday!