On Friday, Pixelmator, the company behind many popular photo-editing apps for Apple platforms, announced that Apple will be acquiring them. While some people are rightfully skeptical of the deal, I’m optimistic that it might solve one of my biggest grips with the iPad.
iPad software shortcomings
I’ve long spent time trying to make the iPad into more of a viable laptop replacement. While iPad hardware has continually gotten better and better, software has always fell short. For me, one of those things has been a lack of a proper photo manipulation tool.
Adobe did bring Photoshop to the iPad around 5 years ago, and I’m sure it’s a great tool. When I first tried the free trial, I found it sufficient. Plus, over the years, its steadily approached feature parity with desktop Photoshop.
The only problem is, Adobe requires a subscription, and I’m not the biggest fan of that payment model. Especially when theres great apps like Pixelmator Pro on my Mac that I had already paid once for.
Another popular photo editing app is Affinity Photo, which does have an iPad version. Similar to Pixelmator Pro, it’s also a one time purchase, with no subscription needed to use the software. However, I’ve never found Affinity Photo the most intuitive to use, so even though I did buy the app on my iPad, I always find myself flocking to Pixelmator Pro on my Mac for these purposes.
Apple could bring Pixelmator Pro to iPad
With all that being said, I really hope Apple makes Pixelmator Pro (or whatever new Apple app comes out of this acquisition) available for iPad. In my opinion, the iPad has long been in need of a good photo manipulation tool that feels intuitive to use.
In the past, members of the Pixelmator Team have said that they’re working on Pixelmator Pro for iPad, but nothing has come to fruition all these years later. Here’s to hoping that Apple does it. I think it’d be really great for Pixelmator Pro’s Apple-esque design and plethora of features to be available on the iPad. Plus, I’m sure they could figure out some really cool Apple Pencil features.
Also, here’s to hoping that Apple doesn’t turn Pixelmator Pro (or whatever new app they make) into a subscription service. They did so for Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro on iPad, so it’s a strong possibility, unfortunately.
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