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Apple acquires Pixelmator

pixelmator.com

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Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#481

Post by 59nadir »

hifromwork wrote: post #156
cyberpunk wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never seen a graphics person using a windows machine in all my years in tech… Maybe I’m in some sort of bubble.

We all live in our own bubbles. I never saw a tech person using MacOS, it's always Windows or Linux - I assume that's not your experience either (and I only know a few people using MacOS privately). That probably mostly depends on the country one resides in.

Well, the view laid out here also corresponds to actual statistical reality: About 29% of developers reported using Macs (of any kind) as of a few years ago, it's not even close to "most", as some HN visitors would have you believe. The bubble is very real.

Statistically speaking there was no "most developers use this", but the closest OS offering was Windows at 45%.

Given Apple's poor performance on the OS side the past few years I'm not sure the hardware has managed to keep users on their side anyway; they even lost DHH very publicly not that long ago... So the numbers might be even worse now.

Edit:

In the latest StackOverflow survey 31.8% of developers report using MacOS (for personal and professional use), 57.9%/47.6% for Windows (personal/professional use). So both MacOS and Windows are eating into Linux's share at the moment, with Windows offering them to instead run Linux inside of Windows.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#482

Post by KoftaBob »

dbbk wrote: post #206
madeofpalk wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, Testflight has a pretty good acquisition story. It got "merged into main" and is now a first class citizen of the iOS development ecosystem. Workflow being acquired and turning into Shortcuts is a pretty successful outcome IMHO. Beats still continues to make slightly cheaper headphones. FoundationDB is still there. Apart from Dark Sky, what other products with users has Apple acquired and shut down…

I totally forgot TestFlight started out third party

As was Siri itself!

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#483

Post by Tommix11 »

no_wizard wrote: post #337
thenberlin wrote: post #187

Putting concerns about future states aside, congrats to the Pixelmator team. I've been using the app for years and it's a really great piece of software, well designed and well built. It's always been incredible value for the price, especially given that it basically replaces Photoshop for a wide swath of the market without compromising on UX (which is a problem for other competitors) at a price point that's like 1-2…

I suspect this move is due to behind the scenes Adobe / Apple relations souring over the years. Adobe used to be one of their biggest supporters and helped winning over users to the Mac platform. This has diverged significantly over the years, and I think Apple is looking at Adobe and their business model and realizing that it both lucrative for them to have software that fills into this market to round out their cre…

Apple and Adobe have always had a sour relationship. Adobe's crappy font licensing led to truetype and they're crappy implementation of Flash led to Jobs dropping flash in the iPhone just to mention a few things from their history.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#484

Post by jpc0 »

butterknife wrote: post #417
NobodyNada wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Logic Pro has both of those features: https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro/edit-fades-lgcpf7c0... https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro/snap-edits-to-zero-...

I am talking about automatically adding fades and/or automatically snapping to nearest zero crossing when cutting audio to prevent clicks. Every other modern DAW does this automatically. In Logic, you are expected to do this manually every time you do an audio edit. Like it's 2004 again. Edit: added clarification about zero crossings and editing workflow

This seems like a very weird hill to die on, specifically concidering this is a feature I would want explicitly off and wouldn't care about existing.

It's editing 101, check your cuts are at a safe boundry of put in a fade. I've never seen an auto feature do what I want though and need to redo it anyway, so just doing nothing is half as much work.

I would much rather complain about lack of AAF support in logic but then again I would never recommend logic to anyone other than for music production work purely because that's the only use case the devs seem to care about.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#485

Post by admksx45v65uqpw »

thenberlin wrote: post #187

Putting concerns about future states aside, congrats to the Pixelmator team. I've been using the app for years and it's a really great piece of software, well designed and well built. It's always been incredible value for the price, especially given that it basically replaces Photoshop for a wide swath of the market without compromising on UX (which is a problem for other competitors) at a price point that's like 1-2…

[dead]

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#486

Post by troupo »

kergonath wrote: post #320
madeofpalk wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, Testflight has a pretty good acquisition story. It got "merged into main" and is now a first class citizen of the iOS development ecosystem. Workflow being acquired and turning into Shortcuts is a pretty successful outcome IMHO. Beats still continues to make slightly cheaper headphones. FoundationDB is still there. Apart from Dark Sky, what other products with users has Apple acquired and shut down…

> Beats still continues to make slightly cheaper headphones. FoundationDB is still there. Final Cut Pro was bought from Macromedia. And Logic from Emagic. And off the top of my head Astarte (iDVD), FileMaker (FileMaker Pro and Bento, though that was originally spun out or Apple in the first place), SoundJam (iTunes), Siri (Siri). All of these were mildly- to hugely-successful products.

Note how most of them are from the era when Apple cared about software, especially pro software. And how Siri is a barely functioning stagnant service.

You'd be hard pressed to find any more recent success stories.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#487

Post by troupo »

jstummbillig wrote: post #150
blihp wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The talent and ideas that were Pixelmator will be substantially diffused as it's absorbed by Apple... most of what you liked about Pixelmator is likely no more over the next year or two. Depending on Apple's reasoning for the acquisition (i.e. how much of it was just for the talent vs the product) you'll may see some small glimpses of Pixelmator's influence a couple years from now in Apple's stuff. Most of the time A…

Logic and and Final Cut were bought and developed since. Pixelmator fills the open Photoshop space in an Apple way, and will plausibly go the same way — no vague pessimism required.

Logic and FinalCut are from the time when Apple cared about software and especially pro software.

In the past decade these apps even disappeared from their main menu on Apple.com where they used to have a prominent spot.

Can you point to a newer acquisition of great software that is still being developed?

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#488

Post by simonh »

musicale wrote: post #449
fhdsgbbcaA wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, Vision Pro has no apps and it may not be the biggest reason for its failure, but it’s a contributor that I don’t see changing. Apple’s main source of innovation is applying mafia tactics to software distribution.

> Apple’s main source of innovation is applying mafia tactics to software distribution. Main source of innovation? What about the Mac, iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple watch, AirPods and M1 MacBook Air, all of which transformed their product categories? Not just because of the hardware, but also because of the hardware-software integration. Even Apple's failed innovations (Apple Vision, etc.) are interesting products…

Yes, but Apple has always been ahead on technology compared to everyone else, so that doesn’t count anymore. Or something.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#490

Post by hnlmorg »

musicale wrote: post #449
fhdsgbbcaA wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, Vision Pro has no apps and it may not be the biggest reason for its failure, but it’s a contributor that I don’t see changing. Apple’s main source of innovation is applying mafia tactics to software distribution.

> Apple’s main source of innovation is applying mafia tactics to software distribution. Main source of innovation? What about the Mac, iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple watch, AirPods and M1 MacBook Air, all of which transformed their product categories? Not just because of the hardware, but also because of the hardware-software integration. Even Apple's failed innovations (Apple Vision, etc.) are interesting products…

I don’t think you’re reading the GPs point very charitably. They’re clearly talking about recent innovations that generate revenue.

Also I think you’re overreacting with some of your examples there. You seem to be conflating “successful” with “innovative”. The two terms aren’t mutually inclusive.

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