future of iView/Expression Media and Aperture

[Van Hilliard]

I have invested a tremendous amount of effort into both of these programs. With more than 100,000 images in Expression Media and about a third of that number in Aperture, I dread the day -- if it comes -- when or if these programs become orphans. Neither Apple nor Microsoft have been helpful on their websites and forums regarding updating the applications. I have been read numerous dire predictions about the future of both programs. Is anybody else in the same fix? Do I need to begin all over again with a program such as Lightroom? Any insights, comments and/or advice would be appreciated.

[Jeff Donald]

Aperture 2.1.4 was released in August. The last separate RAW file update was back in June. It would be highly unlikely for Apple to discontinue a program. I can't think of a single Pro App that Apple has walked away from. Apple is however, very secretive and unlike Adobe and other developers, Apple plays their cards very close to the vest. I suspect you'll see an upgrade before the first of the year.

I can't help you with iView.

[John Chardine]

I have used iView for many years (on the Mac side) and did not like the "smell" of Microsoft buying it to include in their Expression Suite of programs. Although Microsoft seems to have done very little to the program they have updated it a few times and I see no evidence that this will be discontinued.

BTW I like iView because it does not pretend to be an image processor like LR and Aperture. For that I use Photoshop and do not need (often poorly) duplicated abilities in my digital asset management software.

[Chris Ober]

I don't think Expression Media will be going away soon. It's Microsoft's only image management software, and part of their Pro Photo products.

I found this on one of the forums on Microsoft's site.

"First I want to apologize for the seeming disappearance of Expression Media from our website. Microsoft decided to shift Expression Media from the Expression Studio in the v3 release due to the differences in the target markets (designers vs photographers), and we have moved the product information to our photography portal http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto. In the transition, we did not do a good job of redirecting customers from the Expression Studio pages to the photo portal -- something that we are correcting now.

Recently we released Expression Media 2 Service Pack 2, and we subsequently re-released it a month later to correct some bugs -- largely in part to the folks on this forum. In the last few months we have been working on our plans for the future of Expression Media. At this time I cannot share details of our plans, but we are actively working on the future of the product.

Microsoft will continue to provide support for Expression Media, and I want to thank Anita, JP, and Tom for their dedication to the product. They're some of the best support resources and customer advocates I've ever seen.

Please feel free to contact me with your questions, feedback, and frustrations.

Josh Weisberg
Director, Rich Media Group
Microsoft
joshwe@microsoft.com

[Van Hilliard]

Thanks, folks, for your help.
Chris,
I had searched the forum but somehow I missed the response you posted above. That's encouraging.
Van