Apple last week acquired Pixelmator, the developers of popular photo editing apps Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator. Pixelmator made the surprise announcement on Friday. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple could transition high-end photo-editing app Pixelmator Pro to a subscription-based “Photos Pro” app.
Gurman’s comments came in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter.
Pixelmator has assured users that its products won’t change in the near future, but here’s my guess for further out: The software becomes something like “Photos Pro” and gets offered as a subscription on the App Store alongside new iPad programs like Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro. That means Apple will once again have both consumer and higher-end iterations of its video, music and photo-editing apps (with Photos, GarageBand and iMovie serving as the free downscale versions). Given Apple’s push to boost services revenue, I think you can rule out it giving away Pixelmator features for free in its current Photos app.
Apple’s acquisition of Pixelmator is subject to regulatory approval and financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Pixelmator said in its press release announcing the acquisition that there will be no immediate changes to the Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps, but to “stay tuned for exciting updates to come.”
