Apple has opened the App Store with a big surprise, offering Aperture for sale for just £44.99.
The pro image editing and management app — think iPhoto on steroids — was £173, the price still listed on Apple’s online store.
By contrast, Adobe’s rival Lightroom software costs around £200.
The App Store is also selling three iLife apps individually. iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand are available for £8.99 each; if you want iWeb or iDVD, you still have to purchase the full, boxed version of iLife ’11.
The anticipated release of iWork ’11 hasn’t happened, but the existing apps are also available separately. Pages costs $5.99, while Keynote and Numbers are £11.99 and the £29.97 aggregate considerably lower than the £72 Apple is asking for the boxed version.
Among the most high-profile third-party software are: the first Mac version of the top-selling iOS game, Angry Birds; an official Twitter application; image editor Pixelmator; code and text powerhouse BBEdit; and UK developer RealMac’s easy-to-use website builder, RapidWeaver.
The App Store application is available for Snow Leopard with Mac OS X 10.6.6, available via Software Update.
