Around a decade ago now Apple started making it's own 'pro' apps. They'd already got iLife and clearly wanted to add paid apps to create an 'ecosystem' around the Mac.
It made sense - I would buy a Mac, usually with a third party screen, and not give Apple a penny more dough until the Mac was too slow to run the software I wanted. Plus it was occasionally annoying when the Windows version of a key app ran a little faster on Windows or had additional features.
The first pro/paid App I purchased was Logic, followed by FC Express. Logic did indeed run better on the Mac than Cubase, which I first used on the Atari ST, and after a bit of learning kinda liked it. FC Express was nice too, very Mac like.
Aside from that, though, I didn't buy any others, even when they offered something I needed. I chose Lightroom over Aperture. Both are great but I used the Lightroom demo and got into it. No reason to switch to Aperture at all. Ligthtroom apparently runs a fair bit faster on the same hardware.
For the most part I work with Photoshop, Quark and Illusrator, which existed long before there were ever 'pro Apps' from Apple. Apple has never made a pro DTP, or a pro vector Illustration package, or Phtoshop rival. Right now, the latest Adobe apps run great on Mac, not second-class versions.
I personally love the look and feel of Final Cut X and for an in-the-box solution for a phtographer/designer that now collaborates on largely DSLR-based video clips for the web is already 99% perfect. But if it was suddenly cancelled, so what? The latest Premiere doesn't short-change the Mac. There's Media Composer too.
If Aperture went, who really cares? Lightroom's virtually the same thing, in some ways better. And there are fans of Capture One and Bibble too.
Logic raced to become a high-end challenger and it'd be awful if that was just killed - hopefully if Apple didn't want it they'd sell off the music division so it could continue. But, again, most of the key DAW systems work on Mac and work fine.
Apple may see sales of pro Apps as such a tiny slice of the pie when they're selling bucketloads of iPhones and iPads that they just can't be bothered to develop them. In the early days of Mac OS X there was talk of them taking it high end - perhaps aquiring a well known Unix vendor - but why sink billions into a niche with heavy support needs that they had little experience of? Why risk it for questionable returns? Targeting the mass market has, in business terms, been a home run.
As long as Apple keep on making powerful Macs that's really all that matters. Microsoft don't target high-end professional markets in graphics, video and the like directly - the third parties do that.
It made sense - I would buy a Mac, usually with a third party screen, and not give Apple a penny more dough until the Mac was too slow to run the software I wanted. Plus it was occasionally annoying when the Windows version of a key app ran a little faster on Windows or had additional features.
The first pro/paid App I purchased was Logic, followed by FC Express. Logic did indeed run better on the Mac than Cubase, which I first used on the Atari ST, and after a bit of learning kinda liked it. FC Express was nice too, very Mac like.
Aside from that, though, I didn't buy any others, even when they offered something I needed. I chose Lightroom over Aperture. Both are great but I used the Lightroom demo and got into it. No reason to switch to Aperture at all. Ligthtroom apparently runs a fair bit faster on the same hardware.
For the most part I work with Photoshop, Quark and Illusrator, which existed long before there were ever 'pro Apps' from Apple. Apple has never made a pro DTP, or a pro vector Illustration package, or Phtoshop rival. Right now, the latest Adobe apps run great on Mac, not second-class versions.
I personally love the look and feel of Final Cut X and for an in-the-box solution for a phtographer/designer that now collaborates on largely DSLR-based video clips for the web is already 99% perfect. But if it was suddenly cancelled, so what? The latest Premiere doesn't short-change the Mac. There's Media Composer too.
If Aperture went, who really cares? Lightroom's virtually the same thing, in some ways better. And there are fans of Capture One and Bibble too.
Logic raced to become a high-end challenger and it'd be awful if that was just killed - hopefully if Apple didn't want it they'd sell off the music division so it could continue. But, again, most of the key DAW systems work on Mac and work fine.
Apple may see sales of pro Apps as such a tiny slice of the pie when they're selling bucketloads of iPhones and iPads that they just can't be bothered to develop them. In the early days of Mac OS X there was talk of them taking it high end - perhaps aquiring a well known Unix vendor - but why sink billions into a niche with heavy support needs that they had little experience of? Why risk it for questionable returns? Targeting the mass market has, in business terms, been a home run.
As long as Apple keep on making powerful Macs that's really all that matters. Microsoft don't target high-end professional markets in graphics, video and the like directly - the third parties do that.