[Hunch]

So then... Pixelmator... Looks like an interesting project. The guys developing it pretty full of their potential to take on Adobe. And the price point is nice ($59).

What's the view from the crowd? Looks like, for the moment it might fill a nice gap in the market for a cut down, but efficient image editor for quick tasks, or for amateur/semi-pro use when Photoshop is either too complex or unaffordable. Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro and most of the other budget offerings are kinda disappointing, so this one could do well. It's certainly been getting a lot of buzz recently. It sounds like in the future, they might be looking to take on the pro market as well though. Adobe had better buy them quick while they're still small.

Main site:

Pixelmator

Interview with the developers:

TUAW Interview: The Pixelmator Team - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

(Windows users, you can just skip this)

[.sleep]

i tried out a trial at work the other day. it ran just like photoshop did, which is a good thing.

there was one thing i noticed it was missing compared to PS but i forget what it was. couldn't have been that important then.

[Transmogrify]

For $60/£30, it's not a bad piece of software but it's definitely no photoshop. I've had a tinker with it and it's pretty nice for an entry level piece of software, ideal for home users/casual users but it's not going to have Adobe quaking in their boots.

[Hunch]

Originally Posted by Transmogrify

it's not going to have Adobe quaking in their boots.

I think the interesting thing here is that in the interview, they do kinda hint at a fairly serious ongoing development plan, and there is some suggestion that they do have Adobe in their sights.

"Saulius: Our task is to build not the average image editor but the best image editor for Mac OS X. Because we are on track to do that, it will definitely give Photoshop a run for its money -- unless Adobe does not care about Mac OS X."

Version 1.0 of any software is never going to compete with something which is in its 10th release (as Ps is now). What's interesting is where this thing will be at when it gets to version 3 or 4. If they can get pretty close to the level of functionality in Photoshop, and keep the price point the same, I'd say Adobe have a lot to fear.

[samuelcotterall]

I think we're too used to Photoshop, the way it works and the way it interacts with other software to start using something else.

Sure, I can see this being great for amateur photographers and anyone, like me, who only uses Photoshop for cropping and resizing on a daily basis, but otherwise you want the same software as the next guy.

[Hunch]

Originally Posted by samuelcotterall

I think we're too used to Photoshop, the way it works and the way it interacts with other software to start using something else.

Sure, I can see this being great for amateur photographers and anyone, like me, who only uses Photoshop for cropping and resizing on a daily basis, but otherwise you want the same software as the next guy.

I don't. I want the software that does the best job. I don't really give a toss what the next guy is using. Photoshop is without doubt at the top of the tree at the moment, but if these guys start seriously moving forward, by version 3 or 4 they could have something decent. Of course that's a lot of ifs and coulds, but it would be nice to see someone give Adobe a bit of a kick, especially at a fraction of the price.

Adobe themselves have a lot to think about at the moment, especially on the Mac. Apple's engineers have pretty much indicated that in the long term, they're going to drop support for Carbon GUI applications, with the move to 64-bit. It may not be the next release of Mac OS or even the one after, but the writing is on the wall. Adobe's entire product range is one huge carbon code base (millions of lines of code that will have to be scrapped). The future is Cocoa, and that's seriously bad news for Adobe. If the pixelmator boys play their cards right, come that time they'll have a mature product using all the right APIs, so they'll actually in some ways have a head start over their much bigger competitor.

[Transmogrify]

Oh well, good luck to them.

[samuelcotterall]

Don't get me wrong, I want Pixelmator to do well, because if anything competition will drive Adobe to pull their finger out.

Only when my livelihood relies on something then I want to use something tried and tested.