Apple has acquired Pixelmator, the creator of popular image editing apps for iPhone and Mac. The financial details of the sale have not been disclosed by either company. The Lithuanian company, founded in 2007, is best known for Pixelmator and Pixelmator Pro, which compete with Adobe Photoshop. The company also produces Photomator, a popular photo editing app. Over the years, Apple has featured Pixelmator apps during its keynote events. Notably, in 2018, Apple named Pixelmator Pro its Mac App of the Year. “We’ve been inspired by Apple since day one, crafting our products with the same razor-sharp focus on design, ease of use, and performance,” Pixelmator said in a blog post. Although the sale of Pixelmator to Apple is subject to regulatory approval, the app developer stated that there will be "no material changes to Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps at this time," but encouraged users to "stay tuned for exciting updates to come." Apple's acquisition of Pixelmator isn’t surprising, as the Cupertino giant is following in the footsteps of other big tech companies heavily focused on investing in artificial intelligence. Experts say Apple’s acquisition of Pixelmator may help the company improve its AI capabilities and integrate artificial intelligence features into its imaging apps. In 2020, Apple purchased Dark Sky, a weather app that was integrated into Apple’s native weather app. Similarly, Apple acquired Workflow, an automation and macro app that became Shortcuts, providing access to a vast number of existing shortcuts as well as the ability to create and run custom ones. Pixelmator’s features will likely be integrated directly into the Photos app. Apple typically does not acquire large companies like Microsoft and Google, unlike other tech giants. Its last big purchase was Beats, which it bought in 2014 for $3.2 billion. However, it continues to acquire smaller companies from time to time. Apple recently rolled out the first wave of features as part of Apple Intelligence including Clean Up, a feature that removes elements from photos and is considered an answer to Google’s Magic Eraser. Other AI features included in the free software update encompass a variety of writing and proofreading tasks, summarizing the content of emails and other documents. Investors on Wall Street are hoping to see if Apple can distinguish its approach from the early leaders in AI with “Apple Intelligence” and if the iPhone’s suite of new AI technology will actually help increase sales of the iPhone. Apple is still currently viewed as being two to three years behind Google and OpenAI in AI expertise. Last week, Apple gave investors a first glimpse of how the iPhone 16 is faring when the company posted quarterly financial information for the July-September quarter — a period that includes the first few days the new models were on sale. iPhone revenue grew by 6 per cent, providing the first sign of how consumers responded to the iPhone 16 series.
