Apple Tends to Do Right by Apps It Acquires
John Gruber (Mastodon) has gone through the list of Apple acquisitions:
The bottom line is that what we, as users, hope for after a big company acquires a beloved app is for an outcome where the users of that app remain happy. That might mean just keeping the app going, like with Logic. Or it might mean scrapping the standalone app, but bringing the core features of the app into the OS itself, like with Dark Sky. Sometimes it’s a mix, though, like with Shazam.
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But an examination of Apple’s acquisition history doesn’t give me any reason for alarm. Apple really does tend to do right by cool app acquisitions.
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Pixelmator in particular is simply too good to scrap, and Apple hasn’t made its own bitmap image editing application since, I think, MacPaint. Something like Pixelmator really would slot right in next to Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro as an Apple “pro tool”. Whether they’ll keep the name, I don’t know, but I think the app will be released under Apple branding as a Photoshop competitor, for Mac and iPad.
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I’m less sure if Apple has the appetite to keep Photomator going, to compete directly against Lightroom — a market Apple simply walked away from when they discontinued Aperture 10 years ago. But perhaps they now regret walking away from Aperture. I’m just not sure how close Photomator is to being a credible alternative to Lightroom.
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I can see how the best of Photomator could make its way into Photos. That’s not true for Pixelmator. The acquisition just doesn’t make sense to me unless Apple wants to make Pixelmator an Apple-branded pro tool.
My immediate reaction is that acquisitions are almost always bad for fans of the original app, however, I think Gruber is right that Apple’s track record is better than average. On the other hand, looking at the list, most of the businesses that Apple acquired weren’t apps. It’s not a big sample size.
Two apps that were dear to me are Claris Emailer and ClarisWorks. Claris did a great version 2 of Emailer, after acquiring it from Fog City Software, and then killed it. Presumably, this was because Apple had acquired Mail.app in the NeXT acquisition. Unfortunately, it didn’t really try to integrate the things people liked about Emailer into Mail, and it lost some of the key developers to Microsoft.
Similarly, I guess ClarisWorks was killed in favor of iWork (itself based on an acquisition). The AppleWorks Carbon version that shipped after Apple resorbed Claris was not great. iWork is OK but never appealed to me in the way that ClarisWorks did, and it was missing the painting, drawing, and database modules.
More recently, the Dark Sky, Buddybuild, and TestFlight acquisitions were good in that they expanded Apple’s services, but I don’t think they were necessarily wins for fans of the originals.
Previously:
- Does Apple Smell Blood in the Water?
- Apple Acquires Pixelmator
- Mac Folklore Radio on ClarisWorks History
- Apple Buys Dark Sky
- Apple Acquires Buddybuild
- Sunsetting
7 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
Absolutely crazy to say fans of Dark Sky have no argument against the app being a good acquisition. Putting aside the entire Android ecosystem, Apple’s weather app isn’t nearly as good as Dark Sky was in its heyday. If they brought Dark Sky exactly as it was the day it shuttered, I’d switch to it instantly.
Yeah, them purchasing Dark Sky was a big disappointment. I agree that their app is not better, and as an iPhone 7 owner, I can't use it!
Lee Hinde - seeing your name is a blast from the past - long time no see!
If I remember correctly, I used to use Claris Emailer, then I switched to Mailsmith from Bare Bones. Now I use Mimestream.
@Matt Wikipedia says iWork was derived from Bluefish Labs. It’s not clear to me whether they had a nascent product that was acquired or whether it was an acquihire. This MacRumors thread makes it sound more like the latter.
One hint is the design of the iPhone 16 with camera buttons for taking shots and controlling the zoom. Then Apple buys Pixelmator. Could this be a sign of a new focus on photography? (Something else is going on in the compact camera market. Try buying an ultra-zoom camera and see.)
Also, did anyone else notice Freeform, Apple's drawing program? It's easy to miss. Was the last Apple drawing program MacDraw? It makes sense. Adobe priced itself out of the amateur and "prosumer" markets. Apple could offer a pretty good, more moderately priced, alternative.
