Review: Photos for OS X is faster than iPhoto but less powerful than Aperture
AT A GLANCE — Last June, Apple announced the impending retirement of iPhoto and Aperture in favor of Photos for OS X, a new application it demonstrated briefly at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
Context & Ripple Effects
This review lands mid-arc for Apple's photo software: the company announced at WWDC that it would retire iPhoto and Aperture in favor of Photos for OS X, briefly pulled its preview pages before restoring the launch plan, then confirmed Aperture would come off the Mac App Store once Photos shipped (Aperture's App Store removal). The verdict here — faster than iPhoto but less powerful than Aperture — is the first real test of whether that consolidation holds up for professionals.
It matters because the review identifies a capability gap at exactly the moment Apple removes the more powerful alternative from sale, a gap the corpus shows was never closed: by 2019 Apple confirmed Aperture wouldn't run in macOS versions after Mojave, and a 2026 review of Apple's own subscription suite still flags the absence of a photo management tool to rival Lightroom.
First-order effects
- Prospective buyers of Aperture face an immediate decision point: with Apple confirming its removal from the Mac App Store after Photos launches, the review's finding that Photos is less powerful pushes existing Aperture users toward third-party tools like Lightroom rather than an in-place upgrade.
Second-order effects
- Adobe becomes the default landing spot for displaced Aperture users, a position reinforced when it later optimized Photoshop for Apple Silicon with a claimed 1.5X performance gain — deepening the dependency of Mac-based pros on Adobe precisely where Apple chose not to compete.
Third-order effects
- Apple's retreat from pro photo software proves durable: even its 2026 subscription bundle (Creator Studio) ships without a Lightroom-rivaling photo manager, suggesting the consumer-vs-professional split introduced with Photos hardened into a lasting structural gap in Apple's creative lineup.
The trend: Apple has been steadily narrowing its professional software ambitions, retiring standalone pro apps like Aperture and leaving the professional photo-editing market to Adobe.