Apple Newsroom on Tuesday:

Exciting new intelligent features and premium content build on familiar experiences of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and later Freeform to make Apple Creator Studio an exciting subscription suite to empower creators of all disciplines while protecting their privacy.

With pricing set at $12.99/month or $129/year it would take roughly five years to exceed the one-time upfront combined cost of Final Cut and Logic. On Mac you do still have the option of avoiding the subscription by paying for Final Cut, Logic, and Pixelmator Pro upfront. My hope is that this additional subscription model signals a stronger commitment to the pace of updates, and therefore making it harder to argue against the change.

A year after Pixelmator Pro was acquired by Apple we know a bit more about the company’s plans for the app (which I am shocked they didn’t rename). Seeing it come to iPad has me very excited, but I am also confused why the one-time purchase option isn’t available. I already own the Mac version so it will just show up on my iPad Pro, but what about creators who bought into the marketing of the iPad being the computer of the future? For those people who don’t own a Mac the subscription is their only choice.

The icons are disappointing, and having two icon versions depending on whether you buy them with one-time purchase vs subscription is confusing. For better or worse they do fit in more naturally with the 26 era Liquid Glass design language.

Why are Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, the apps that makeup the iWork suite, being moved to a freemium model and included in this bundle? Why is there no iWork only subscription option for productivity customers who are not using creative pro apps like Logic? That is hands down the single most confusing aspect of this whole announcement.