Apple on Monday said that it will stop updating and developing Aperture, its affordable professional photo-editing software when the next version of OSX operating system are launched.
"With the introduction of the new Photos app and iCloud Photo Library, enabling you to safely store all of your photos in iCloud and access them from anywhere, there will be no new development of Aperture," Apple said. "When Photos for OS X ships next year, users will be able to migrate their existing Aperture libraries to Photos for OS X."
Aperture allows users to edit images, adjusting exposure, color balance, skin tones, etc. At $79.99, it was affordable for enthusiasts and professionals alike.
Apple said that when the next version of OSX (Yosemite) becomes available to download, so would a compatibility patch so that existing Aperture users will be able to launch the app, but that would be the final update.
Apple also confirmed that it would help Aperture users simply migrate their files to Adobe Lightroom -- Aperture's closest direct rival.
Lightroom is not accessible as a one-off payment. Instead, users must sign up to Adobe's creative cloud platform and its $9.99 monthly. That sign up also includes access to Photoshop and the ability to use both applications as iPhone and iPad apps.