Well, this was bound to happen. Apple decided that $499 was too much to ask consumers to pay for their photo processing program, Aperture, so they dropped the price by $200. In addition, the program is now Universal, meaning that it will run natively on both the Intel Mac as well legacy Power PC Mac. The update can be downloaded here.
Now, for you suckers early adopters - those of you who bought the program for $500 - Apple is offering you a $200 “e-coupon” which you can download here (PDF link). Here’s their press release:
“On April 13, 2006 Apple released Aperture 1.1, the first Universal version of Aperture and a significant update to the revolutionary all-in-one post-production tool for photographers. In addition, Apple lowered the price of Aperture from $499 to $299. Apple is offering a $200 e-coupon good on the online Apple Store to licensed users of Aperture 1.0. Licensed users of Aperture 1.0 Academic will receive a $100 e-coupon.”
I suppose that giving back that $200 is the least they could do. Even at $299, I think it’s still a little steep, but manageable. Capture One costs over $500 and so does Photoshop CS2, but those programs do a heck of a lot more than Aperture. I’d still advise waiting until Adobe finishes up Lightroom and puts it out on the shelves. My bet is that Adobe will price it the same or less than Aperture.
