Over the weekend I had lunch with a long-time professional photographer and Mac user who is also a beta tester for Adobe's next-generation photo editing program, Lightroom. I asked for a comparison to Apple's high-end photo program Aperture and he said "There's no comparison. I don't understand why Apple shipped Aperture. There was a hole in the market for Final Cut, because Adobe let Premiere slip, but nobody was really looking for a Photoshop alternative."
The explanation for Aperture is simply that it's in Apple's (and Steve Jobs') DNA to want to do everything themselves. Sure, there's a big ecology of add-on Apple software and hardware, but when it comes to the core products, Apple wants to control it all. Clearly, photo editing software won't make or break the company (already some of the Aperture technology is seeping into iPhoto, which is good for everyone). But the Must Invent It Here attitude is a broader concern--especially in the world of media playback.
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