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Bad Sign for Aperture


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Bad Sign for Aperture
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Moogs
Hates the Infotainment
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
 
2008-01-15, 14:41

The fact that Aperture did not today receive an update, roughly 16 months after the 1.5 update was announced, is not a good sign IMO. Especially considering 1.5 was not what you would call a major upgrade but rather more of a "fill in the gaps from 1.0 release so it's at least competitive with other offerings in terms of functionality and flexibility." Subsequent dot releases have provided many bug fixes and mild performance tweaks and OS compatibility tweaks but beyond that nothing has happened.

I'd be interested to see if anyone knows sales figures for this app. Apple is always a leader / tries to be first to market with big updates, so I certainly wouldn't buy into any "they're waiting for Lightroom 2 to surface so they can trump what Adobe offers" mumbo jumbo. And given how much money Apple has been making in recent years the concept that they don't have enough development horse-power is barely plausible too. They could hire as many competant imaging engineers as they wanted, with the snap of a finger pretty much. Even lure some people away from Adobe if they wanted to, probably.

This stagnation to me is a sign of poor sales and just milking it for all it's worth. Anyone have other information?

...into the light of a dark black night.
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Eugene
careful with axes
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Hillsborough, CA
 
2008-01-15, 14:58

You want Apple to release a major update to a professional tool at a consumer expo?

...so they can steal some of the thunder from today's announcements and pimp Aperture 2.0 to a crowd that doesn't care?
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julesstoop
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Leiden, the Netherlands
 
2008-01-15, 15:04

I still believe they're working on a completely redesigned 2.0 release. They might market it under a different moniker, but it's going to arrive. Note that Apple is still touting (professional photographers experiences with) Aperture on there hotnews section about once a month.

A black hole is where god divided by zero.
http://settuno.com/
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rasmits
rams it
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Seattle
 
2008-01-15, 15:08

There's room in the market for Aperture. As long as that's true, Apple will continue to improve it. When was the last time Apple simply pulled a piece of software off the market because they had a lacklustre first version?

You had me at asl
.......
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Moogs
Hates the Infotainment
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
 
2008-01-15, 15:47

Oh there's plenty of room, and I hope I'm wrong. But this was the perfect chance (Eugene it only takes a couple minutes at the end of the Keynote to add it as one more thing, no thunder need be stolen) to let people know they're committed to keeping it, etc.

From a pure logic standpoint it might in theory make more sense to announce it at Photokina or whatever... but from a marketing standpoint there's not much comparison. And Apple knows as much. Not to mention Apple never has a big presence at those shows. Those other trade shows are far more obscure, even to a lot of photographers, than the biggest Mac show of the year, and all the stuff that follows on their web site.

I dunno maybe Apple has just decided this is a "special press event" kind of product from now on that doesn't require any presence at any show. Even FCS and Logic Studio gets the NABB love. Aperture seems to have been lost in teh shuffle. And a press release once a month doesn't do much since about 1% of the world reads press releases.

...into the light of a dark black night.
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chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
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2008-01-15, 15:52

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eugene View Post
You want Apple to release a major update to a professional tool at a consumer expo?

...so they can steal some of the thunder from today's announcements and pimp Aperture 2.0 to a crowd that doesn't care?
Bingo. There wouldn't have been any reasonably way to show Aperture 2.0. It wouldn't have done the audience justice, for most of them indeed don't care. It wouldn't have done the product justice, for showing off an impressive upgrade takes time. Those pro apps? Shown at dedicated events, such as NMA. Aperture? Same thing. PhotoPlus or photokina.

I'm not happy that it's been so long, and I am indeed slightly worried that they may be canceling it, but I never expected a single word of it at Macworld. Heck, even something notable and consumer-oriented as the AirPort Express 802.11n last year was quietly added after the keynote. Jobs didn't say a single word about it.
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Moogs
Hates the Infotainment
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
 
2008-01-15, 15:55

You guys are missing the point. Obviously they're not going to do a huge demo of Aperture at a MWSF keynote... though I think you both underestimate the number of prosumer and pro users at MW events and watching said events - just like we do. It's not just a consumer audience. Pros love to watch as new Apple gear is revealed too! Tons of media as well.

But anyway there's no reason on earth why, at the end of the show that Apple couldn't say "And here's some other great stuff that's being announced today, including an all-new Aperture. Check it out at Apple.com!" That alone would get more people's interest and new buyers than a booth at a trade show somewhere in Germany.

...into the light of a dark black night.
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BuonRotto
Not sayin', just sayin'
 
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2008-01-15, 16:31

Only things I've heard are that Aperture 1.0's development was seriously messed up to the point that people were fired and others quit. I suspect that the huuuuuuuuge delay is simply a reflection of Apple having to 1. clean house, 2. find anew team for it, 3. make a plan for dealing with development moving forward, 4. figure out what to do with the product as it stands, 5. figure out how to deal with the code that reflect the product development mismanagement, 6. fix what's confusing, broken, difficult, etc. and finally 7. develop all the new stuff for it. If you look at this like it's hardware development, this could take 2 years or so, given accounts of Apple's development process. I know software is supposed to be faster, but very broken software and management/personnel problems with the project and team probably even that out and then some. I could see Aperture not being updated until the Fall or so. After that, I'll really start to wonder.
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GSpotter
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: A small town near Wolfsburg, Germany
 
2008-01-15, 16:42

Apple has a booth at PMA 08. Wouldn't the PMA would be a more suitable place to announce a new version of Aperture than MacWorld?
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Moogs
Hates the Infotainment
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
 
2008-01-15, 16:48

Only if you're trying to limit its exposure on purpose. While it's not a bad place to introduce it, the fact is that kind of event is not going to get Aperture in front of millions of eyeballs. Apple would be better off announcing it today, showing off some stuff on the web site, and releasing at PMA with demos, etc.

Buon: pretty much items 3-6 are all a part of the same item / process. None of those things, given how long ago the 1.0 problems were, would preclude Apple from having solid, new product today if they had wanted one. This isn't *that* complex a task for Apple to manage, given their human resources and finances. If they had decided 16 months ago they wanted a new team and a new product in 12 or 14 months, they could've done it pretty easily. It's not like they'd have to scrap the whole thing, though of course that's a possibility, however remote.

If they don't have something by September as you say, I wouldn't start to worry; I would bank on it being dead. Products on that scale don't go 2 years without an update unless they're toast. If it were Shake, yah maybe I could see it taking 2 years from scratch but... Aperture is a lot less complex than Shake.

...into the light of a dark black night.
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morningstarrising
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Philadelphia, PA
 
2008-01-15, 22:28

Quote:
Originally Posted by GSpotter View Post
Apple has a booth at PMA 08. Wouldn't the PMA would be a more suitable place to announce a new version of Aperture than MacWorld?
Yeah, It'd be like showing off Final Cut Pro at Macworld. I think Apple would want to announce it to the audience that buys it and the PMA is where all of those people pay attention.

Jebus Google, just buy Apple already...
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