The recent abrupt discontinuation of Apple’s Shake professional compositing software has left fans of the company’s professional photography workflow tool, Aperture, nervous about the future of that product too. On many user forums people are discussing Aperture with an impending sense of doom. It’s been quite some time since Aperture was updated, and reports from the internet suggest that many users have left the software in favor of Adobe’s rival product, Lightroom. So should Aperture users be worried?
In a word, no. There are some pretty big differences between the situation with Aperture and the situation with Shake. Shake was a very old piece of software that Apple had bought and continued to develop. However, development on it had pretty much stopped when Apple lowered the price of it a few years ago. Since then the product has been on life support. Recently all marketing efforts for shake had been ceased and there hasn’t been a service upgrade for it in a long time. People were surprised primarily because rumor sites had suggested that Apple had been working on a replacement for Shake, but unfortunately this never materialized.
With Aperture however Apple are still actively marketing the software. I received a marketing email from them as recently as yesterday which featured Aperture. What’s more, Aperture received a maintenance upgrade in March of this year, and Raw support has continued to be added through operating system upgrades and system patches. Yet people’s worry is understandable. Lightroom has had several point upgrades since the last version of Aperture was released, adding several significant features that Apple has yet to offer solutions for, such as Camera profiles, and the gradient tool. Another cause for concern amongst users is the death of Aperture related blogs, websites and evangelism, especially in comparison the Adobe’s vocal user base. Also, some of the sites that were promoting Aperture have stopped publishing or scaled back dramatically. The most notable of which is O’Reilly’s Inside Aperture site. However this is more due to economic hardship than any drop off in interest in the software, as O’Reilly reportedly laid off lots of staff around the time of the last published article on that site.
Still, it is easy to lose faith, especially when Apple are so silent. The company’s own pro pages used to be regularly updated with tales from pro photographers, but these too have been dormant lately, so you could certainly be forgiven for thinking that interest in Aperture has waned, both from a user, and Apple’s perspective. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest the contrary though. A while ago I wrote an article about what the next version of Aperture and recently this has become the number one visited page in my web stats, with people searching for information on google regarding Aperture 3. A search of Twitter also reveals a healthy level of interest in the program so there is definitely still demand for it.
At the end of the day, getting back to my original point, I highly doubt Aperture is going away. Despite its troubled birth I suspect that the software is still actively being developed as we speak. Unfortunately Apple’s lack of communication on any level is not helping. The company, for whatever reason, still hasn’t officially announced the discontinuation of Shake, they just removed any mention of it from their website. Given the concern, and given the meteoric rise of Lightroom, Apple would do well to make some kind of reassuring statement to its users. Of course, having followed Apple for many years, there is more chance of hell freezing over than that actually happening. If we haven’t seen a new version by this time next year, then I’d start to be concerned, but for now though, I don’t think Aperture users have anything to worry about.
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Dear Thomas,
If you’re going to publish on the net, you really should start paying attention to things like grammar and spelling. When you write “it is easy to loose faith, especially when Apple are so silent”, and “Despite it’s troubled birth”, it makes you look like an undereducated teenager. The word is “lose” not “loose”, “its” does not have an apostrophe in the possessive, and Apple is not a plural noun. In addition to these, there are capitalization errors, sentence fragments, and other questionable grammatical constructs…just in this one article. Although your points are well taken, your writing is atrocious. You really need to have someone proofread your stuff before publishing.
Best of luck to you,
Steve
Dear Steve
Thank you for our comment. Also, thank you for your insult, referring to me as “undereducated teenager”. I should point out hat I passed with first class honours in higher level English. I would also like to refer you to the comment policy regarding name calling. Normally I would just delete your post but I would like to address your concerns, which incidentally have nothing whatsoever to do with the article.
I write this blog as a side to a full time job. I do not have the luxury of a copy editor or a proof reader. I do it as a passion. Sometimes I make typos. Sometimes I make a few typos in my rush to get a post out between getting work done. And then I have to take the time to respond to childish posts like these. If you are more concerned with spelling and grammar don’t read blogs. they are by their nature not professional publications. They are the writings of passionate individuals. Seriously. Please don’t read anything on this site.
Also, by the way, I am from Ireland, and it is common practice to refer to companies in the plural. I know it’s not grammatically correct, but you know what, I just don’t care, because again this is not a professional publication. I write this for other passionate people, not English professors and grammar nerds.
I’d also like to say, that I’m more than happy if people point out typos to me, so long as they do it in a less dickish fashion.
Thank you.
no… shake is very specific to a tiny market, i would guess apple sells less than 100 copies each month… while aperture appeals to Apple’s professional base and sells probably 8,000 or so a month…
so who knows what will happen to shake, but aperture will be fine.
Steve
I think the problem with “its” versus “it’s” is mainly a muscle memory typo. I add apostrophe at times incorrectly without even thinking about it because touch typing is often done in a “stream of conscious” state. I’m not sure if Thomas is from the UK but many view company like Apple as plural entitites. Being that we Americans are colonists I’d say it would be pretty silly to think that our way is superior to theirs given the age differences of our two nations. Luckily, it’s about the photography and not the writing/editing that draws people to this website.
Yo Thomas, your response to Steve made my day—’specially that last sentence!
Steve obviously has a lotta time on her hands as she scours the internet for Aperture info—that which is ONLY presented in the strictest and most grammatically accurate way, of course. But in a truly shocking and unexpected turn of events, I actually understood everything that you successfully conveyed.
EVERYTHING!
No, SERIOUSLY, I did!
Wow . . . who knew!
You go boy . . . and keep doin’ your thing.
One of your many fans,
Sam
Some more follow ups….
Thanks to Sam for the support !
Brian,
I had switched to Lightroom for a bit but I’m moving back to Aperture. While I like Lightroom’s print module and some of the things you can do in the Develop module, I don’t think the Raw decode is as good as Aperture’s. I’m going to do a blog post on it soon (once I psych myself up to deal with the inevitable fall out)
By the Way, here’s one of the Forum threads that got me started down this link of thinking: I think you can see people’s genuine concern about the future of Aperture here.
http://www.apertureprofessional.com/showthread.php?t=24136
Apple is hard at work on Aperture 3. All the hand wringing over the fate of the app (which btw started about six months after Aperture 2 shipped) is silly. Apple NEVER talks about unannounced products.
Believe it or not there was similar handwringing over the fate of Final Cut the last few months as well. We see that Apple didn’t kill Final Cut, and they haven’t killed Aperture. Everyone needs to relax, enjoy the superb app that is Aperture 2, and expect to be very pleasantly surprised when Aperture 3 ships.
The point that gets missed is that Apple had already announced no more upgrades the Shake a while ago. The death should not come as a surprise at this point. Is it possible that Aperture could die — sure. All software does at some point.
I have to agree with Steve on this one. If my name was on the top of the blog, I’d surely take the time to ensure it is the best writing possible.
The problem with articles like this is that assumptions are made without any supporting evidence. It was pretty well understood that Apple was working on a replacement for Shake called Phenomenon. When that will see the light of day or weather node based features will make it’s way into products like Motion remain to be seen. However, we do know that Apple is very secretive with everything it does. It’s clearly premature to make such assumptions, especially with regards to Aperture. Referencing the loss of an O’Reilley blog hardly indicates doom for a great product like Aperture.
I think you’ve missed the point on this article. I had been reading on many different user forums about Aperture and how long it’s been since an update. Many people had started to express concern once Shake ceased to exist. If you read what I wrote you’ll see I wasn’t trying to make any assumptions about Aperture but rather allay people’s fears. I could have been more aggressive about it and said that people were silly for suggesting such things but instead I tried to take a more pragmatic approach and express understanding as to why people would think such things but also show why they probably have nothing to fear. Too often on blogs people lash out at those that express such concerns. People are only human and I prefer the non confrontational approach. Well, most of the time anyway.
As for Michael’s point about Shake, it’s not so much that it died, but rather the way in which it was discontinued that surprised everyone. Rather than announce that it had been discontinued, Apple simply redirected the website to the Final Cut site and said nothing. Those of us who work in the television Industry (I’ve been using shake since it was owned by Nothing Real and ran on an SGI Irix box) are not at all surprised that Apple discontinued Shake, but rather at the way they did it. As for the much rumoured Phenomenon, by killing Shake without announcing a replacement, facility managers looking to buy new compositing stations can’t wait around for an Apple product that may never be announced (Rumor sites are much to blame here – who knows if Phenomenon was ever real) but instead have to consider the competition. Unfortunately, most of Shake’s competitors are much more expensive.
As for my writing abilities (and this is the last comment I’m going to make on the subject) I know my grammar and spelling may not be to exam level perfection, but if only text book perfect writing was allowed on the internet, then the web would be a much smaller and less interesting place. If people are only allowed to express themselves if they do so with perfect spelling and grammar then what’s the point of sites like wordpress and blogger, or software like iWeb since the average person will never meet the levels of perfection some on the internet inevitably require. Perhaps people like those who commented on my typos would prefer that kind of closed off system. Personally I prefer freedom of expression for everyone over such snobbery. But then what would I know? I’m just the guy whose name is on the top of the blog.
Thanks for the blog about Aperture. I have been considering moving to Aperture, since I have so much photo and iPhoto etc doesnt cut it anymore, and your blog entry make me less hesistant!
(And for the grammar freaks, my native language is Swedish, and I soon going to sleep. So instead of giving me a lesson how to correct it, take a pint of ale, relax, and enjoy life)
Nice piece of linkbait and completely devoid of any serious value.
Just a follow up to the comment from Scott Bourne. I know it was a while ago, but I find it interesting that after you called this post “linkbait” when I wrote it you’ve since decided to “add” lightroom to your workflow and wrote a post about why, including similar points to what I made here. In particular you wrote:
“But beyond that, Apple’s very closed culture, odd PR and marketing approach and a few misfires in Aperture 1, caused the photo community to shift pretty heavily toward Lightroom.”
So my post is “linkbait” for acknowledging that people had those fears about Aperture, but you expressing those feelings, that’s ok?
You had me scared for a bit. I’m one of those who consider moving to Lightroom from time to time. I thought it was going to have to be a reality.
Hi Scott
Thanks for the comment. I think it’s a little unfair to label this as “linkbait”. It’s a genuine discussion about the genuine fears of genuine people. I don’t think trying to allay those fears is without value either.
Thanks
Thomas.
Written like an undergraduate trying to impress and fill space at the same time. Hard to read, unwieldy sentence construction. Prevented me from caring about what you had to say . . .
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