Photosmith was somewhat of a competitor to one of my own products, PhotoRaw, so it might seem surprising that I'm sorry that things turned out this way. But I am genuinely disappointed to them go.
Firstly, I have a great deal of sympathy for folks that try to do something innovative in the imaging space, and the Photosmith folks had to deal with many of the same issues that I had to - many imposed by Apple.
Secondly, Photosmith was helping to make raw processing on the iPad a viable option. Their conception of raw workflow on the iPad was very different to mine, but in the initial stages of establishing the concept of the iPad as a viable way to process raws, having them around probably did more to expand the market than to take sales away from me.
Finally, I often recommended their product to prospective PhotoRaw customers that wanted Lightroom integration.
However, the reason for this post is actually to point out that the Photosmith folks have written two excellent articles:
- “All good things” – Chris Horne’s historical overview of Photosmith’s inception and development.
- “Going out with a bang” – Chris Morse’s review of Photosmith’s economics and use history, with informative graphs and stats.
If you're at all interested in the reality of developing imaging software, and the economics of it, these article are a "must read"
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