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What happens to great apps that Apple buys out?

In November 2024, Pixelmator announced that the company would join Apple. Although the post said there would be “no material changes” to the company’s apps, fans were worried. The assumption was that Photomator and Pixelmator (the latter being a rare sort-of-Photoshop for iPhone) were on borrowed time.

But is it always bad news for fans of an app when Apple buys it? Let’s explore some key examples from the past 30 years and see how they inform what Apple might do with Pixelmator’s apps.

NeXTSTEP

The NeXTSTEP desktop.

NeXTSTEP (1997): Having been ousted from Apple, Steve Jobs founded NeXT. It struggled to sell hardware, but its software was ahead of its time. In a dramatic twist, Apple swallowed NeXT whole, bringing Jobs back to the helm. NeXT was gone, but its technology paved the way for Apple’s resurgence, Mac OS X and iOS.

SoundJam MP (2000): During the late 1990s, Audion and SoundJam wrestled for MP3 player supremacy on the Mac. Apple chose SoundJam, hired the team, but scrapped the app, which was reimagined as iTunes. Longtime fans mourned the loss of cherished features, but iTunes ignited the digital music revolution.

Emagic Logic (2002): The legendary Notator Logic was once available for Mac, Windows and the Atari ST. But when Apple acquired the app, only the Mac version survived, leaving a bitter taste for thousands of heavily invested users. But Logic remains a cornerstone of pro music production, and inspired the creation of GarageBand.

 

Siri (2010): The original version of Siri was a third-party app that lasted all of two months on the App Store before Apple swooped in. The curious thing is that the original Siri in some ways felt more human and useful for key tasks than its modern incarnation. Probably file this one under ‘missed opportunity’.

TestFlight (2014): This ambitious tool was designed to let creators beta-test mobile apps with a wide audience. When Apple bought it, Android support vanished, along with analytics and monetization tools. TestFlight continues to thrive under Apple’s wing, but what we have today is a departure from the original’s more inclusive vision.

Workflow (2017): This app was a stroke of genius, giving iPhone users a quick, visual way to automate tasks across multiple apps. Strangely, some people argued Apple hadn’t done enough when it effectively rebranded the app as Shortcuts. But there’s no denying the app became more capable and powerful through tight-knit iOS integration.

Shazam (2018): When it first hit smartphones, Shazam’s ability to identify a song being played felt like magic. Surprisingly, Apple has changed little about the experience since purchasing the app. It’s still available on Android and on the web, even if Apple sadly chose to rename it ‘Music Recognition’ (how dull!) in the Apple Watch apps list.

DarkSky

DarkSky, circa 2018.

DarkSky (2020): This weather app and website were visual treats, predicting rainfall with neon clouds that billowed across minimalist maps. Apple chose to shutter both and integrate DarkSky tech into Weather. While that was good news for Apple’s app, fans miss DarkSky, of which only subtle hints remain in Weather’s precipitation map.

These aren’t the only apps Apple has acquired, but their stories showcase two likely post-purchase journeys. The first is an app remaining alive more or less as-is. The other is it being shuttered while its tech and features are – to varying degrees – integrated into an existing Apple product.

The rate at which each option happens is akin to a coin flip. Ten years from now, then, we could be happily downloading the latest Pixelmator update or fondly remembering Photomator and how it sadly became merely a few long-gone features in Photos. Only time will tell.