Aviary launches photo editing application on iOS, turns Android plugin into an app
Last we heard, Aviary was being chosen to replace the deceased Picnik as the main photo editor on Flickr, and now the startup is getting ready to launch its first iOS app and give its previous Android offering a major boost.
Context & Ripple Effects
Aviary has spent 2012 positioning itself as the default mobile photo-editing layer across platforms: in February it brought its tech to Windows Phone apps via an SDK, and in March Ars Technica's review found Apple's iPhoto already out-doing Adobe for mobile image editing — evidence that the incumbent desktop vendors were vulnerable on phones. The startup then landed the job of replacing the shut-down Picnik as the main editor on Flickr.
Today's move closes the loop on distribution: after winning Flickr's editor slot by default rather than by consumer reach, Aviary is shipping its first standalone iOS app and promoting its previous Android plugin to a full app. Pickup across VentureBeat, GeekWire, PandoDaily, The Next Web, Lifehacker and The Verge shows how closely the developer ecosystem is watching the plugin-to-app transition.
First-order effects
- Aviary gains direct consumer touchpoints on both major mobile platforms — its own iOS app plus a standalone Android app — instead of reaching users only through partner integrations like the Flickr editor slot.
- Flickr's post-Picnik editor choice now sits alongside a branded app from the same vendor, letting Aviary funnel web-based Flickr users toward its mobile products.
Second-order effects
- Adobe and Apple face a low-cost rival whose editing tools are embeddable anywhere — following the Windows Phone SDK play, other app developers can bolt Aviary's editor onto their own products rather than build one or license Photoshop.
- The plugin-to-app upgrade sets a template other SDK-first startups may follow, pressuring platforms like Flickr to treat third-party editors as replaceable commodities rather than permanent fixtures, as Picnik's demise showed.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, photo editing consolidates around cross-platform tool suppliers whose value is the engine, not the destination app — a structural shift away from single-suite desktop ownership toward unbundled, embeddable editing layers that larger players ultimately have to buy or match.
The trend: Photo editing is unbinding from desktop suites into standalone and embeddable mobile apps, with SDK-driven startups racing incumbents like Adobe across every platform at once.