My ability to think of examples obviously isn't that great.

I still don't see where it fits into the lineup. If there's still a PixelMator Pro in 6 months, I'll be surprised, but it won't be the first time I'm completely wrong about something.

I was worried Workflow was totally screwed as a product after Apple bought it, but they've done a really great job at turning it into Shortcuts and integrating it across all their platforms.

Being able to put Shortcuts into Control Center in iOS 18 is a handy option, if anyone missed that you can do that now.

For me personally, Pixelmator is absolutely a product I just fire up once in a great while. I bought it anyway because when I need it, I need it. But there's no way I would let a program like that deflate my bank account like a pricked balloon.

Interesting! Do you think a credits-based pricing would be more fair? Only pay for it when you use it? Maybe pay per click? Maybe like how cloud providers charge based on how long you have it open?

The big thing Aperture nailed though was photo-management workflows - it was never that great as an image editor. I don't see anything in Pixelmator that moves the needle in an Aperture/Lightroom-type direction by integrating photo management, which was the innovation Aperture and Lightroom brought back at their roughly similar original launch dates. Pixelmator is much more a photoshop alternative IMO.

I'd put money on this acquisition being used to improve the image editing experience in photos.app on iOS/macOS, just like Dark Sky was acquired and then used to improve weather.app, rather than any return of Aperture.

It would be a different name or form but it would not be dead.