Apple Tends to Do Right by Apps It Acquires
My post this week about Shazam’s history got me thinking about Apple’s track record with acquired apps. Apple acquired Shazam in 2018, and soon integrated its capabilities into Siri. But they’ve also kept the Shazam app going, including the Android version. They even still have a standalone Shazam website. I’d say this has been an acquisition that’s made everyone happy: existing users still have a great Shazam app, and the core “What song is this?” feature has been made more available and accessible.
At the moment, outside Cupertino (and Lithuania) we’re left with uncertainty over the future of Pixelmator and Photomator after their announcement of Apple’s pending acquisition. In broad strokes, let’s consider the strategic reasons Apple might acquire an existing popular app — or in this case, apps.
Keep the app going under Apple’s ownership — Examples of this include Logic, which Apple acquired by purchasing parent company Emagic in 2002, and going back even further, FileMaker.
