In discussions about discontinued Apple programs, the end of Aperture is particularly regretted. The app not only enabled professional users to edit photos in a variety of ways, but also offered helpful tools to beginners despite the wealth of features. Aperture was not presented at an Apple event, but at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York. Delivery of the first version began exactly 15 years ago, the price at that time was 499 dollars. With Aperture 2.0 there was a reduction to only 199 dollars – and many additional editing tools and a completely new engine. After the Aperture 1 reviews were very mixed and often negative, this should change over time.
2011: Unrivaled value for money
When the Mac App Store launched, Aperture became a real bargain. At just 79 dollars, many users at the time expressed the opinion that it was better to strike immediately, because the low price could only be an accident. However, it stayed that way, although Aperture 3 had become even more powerful. Apple spoke about the release of more than 200 new functions, including video and audio support for the first time. The last major feature update, Aperture 3.5, came out in autumn 2013 – before the app dawned.
The end came slowly
As early as the summer of 2014, Apple announced that Aperture would no longer receive any new functions. The replacement should take place in two directions – on the one hand to “Photos”, Apple’s direct successor to iPhoto, on the other hand to more professional programs such as Adobe Lightroom. It should be some time before the Aperture era was finally over. Aperture even worked under macOS 10.14 Mojave, released in autumn 2018. It wasn’t until macOS 10.15 Catalina hit the last nail in the coffin, because 32-bit software no longer works since this system version. As already mentioned at the beginning: At this point in time, Aperture still had many fans who were convinced of the performance of the software – by no means a matter of course for a program of this age.