Aperture discontinuation breaks ecosystem?
Does anyone else see Aperture's discontinuation as more than just an inconvenience, but creating a significant breaking point for their overall ecosystem?
Being the photographer and IT guy for my entire extended family and group of friends, I am the center of photo production/distribution. I'm entirely based on Apple and my extended family, based on my recommendations, is also based on Apple. Part of the beauty of Aperture was its integration with the rest of Apple products and how it made everything easy. You could share libraries with iPhoto and, with this feature, connect into the rest of Apple's applications. Pictures easily flowed into iMovie or iWork. iCloud Photostream allowed others to instantly have their iPhones/iPads updated with the latest images. AppleTV was a great way to show off images on a large screen.
With Apple announcing the discontinuation of Aperture, I stand to lose all of that integration and, by extension, so do my family and friends. I now need to think about a migration to a different professional photo tool and, with it, stand to lose adjustments, organizational structure, etc. It is a major inconvenience for me and a break in the trust that Apple has built up with their products. With the shift to a different tool, Photostream would likely cease to be my distribution mechanism and, as a consequence, integration with Apple's consumer products (e.g. iPhone, iPad and AppleTV) disappears as well. As I begin to think of how it will impact me and those connected to me, I'm coming to see this as not just a "minor" change and inconvenience, but as having the potential to shift future hardware/Cloud preferences away from Apple.