Apple discretely manage software lifecycles to push users into buying new, its new, expensive hardware.
A recent news is that is going to dump Aperture, its photo management pro app, announcing in the meantime the availability of a “photo” application in the next iteration of OSX. True, Apple shall not drop the support for the new OS versions, but for how long? This uncertainty ? will force people to either stay stuck to older machines or move to Adobe Lightroom, the (currently only) competitor. In either case this will cause financial and time issues for Aperture’s user-base.
Aperture is nothing but the last Apple-made software to meet this ? or a similar fate. Final Cut Pro X latest version, so Pages, Numbers and Keynote, just to name a few, only work with the current OSX version, Maverick.
True, compared to the consequences of Microsoft XP dismissal, the Apple choice looks a trivial issue but on the long term it shouldn’t, since managing the lifecycle of its applications as well as the backward compatibility, Apple is able to force its users into buying new expensive hardware. Furthermore, for those who choose not to upgrade, the software old-versions might not be anymore permanently available through the AppStore and cannot be locally downloaded. So why a professional user should enter into this uncertain – or, on the contrary, safe-but-costly, world?
This is the consequence of living in a Golden Cage: stay comfortable as soon as you can afford it. And when (“when”, not “if”) you don’t anymore, just get lost and give room to the next, wealthy-at-the-moment, occupier of your place in the Golden Cage.