Affinity is coming to iPad and Linux for free, while a wave of layoffs looms
The free professional software Affinity is now also being released on iPad and Linux. With this, the company is increasing the pressure on Adobe. At the same time, its owner, Canva, has announced a major restructuring that will involve layoffs.
First, the good news: the professional Affinity Creative Suite is now also available for the iPad. Previously, it was only available as an all-in-one app for PC and MacOS. This was announced by Serif, the British company behind the software, in a blog post. The software is free for private individuals; premium features cost extra. And that's not all: in a post on X, the company confirmed upon request that a Linux version is also in active development. There is no release date yet.
Affinity is powerful software that allows for the creation and editing of images, vector graphics, and page layouts. It thus represents direct competition to its Adobe counterparts.
And now for the bad news. Not for you, but for the employees at Canva. In an email to the staff, CEO Melanie Perkins announced a restructuring that affects 1,271 employees. This corresponds to 22 percent of the workforce. She cites slowing growth for the first time in ten years as the reason.
Not everyone affected has to leave immediately: some people will be able to take on a new role or keep their job by moving to another location, as the email states according to the Guardian.
It is not yet known how many employees Canva will ultimately part ways with. According to the Guardian, these individuals will receive severance pay amounting to at least six months' salary and will continue to have health insurance for twelve months. They are also allowed to keep their work laptops.
Free software vs. job cuts?
Did Canva overreach with the acquisition of Serif? Not necessarily. Canva continues to offer the Affinity Suite for free and is actively working on it. Accordingly, the company seems to want to stick to its long-term strategy: attracting users through a freemium model and binding them to its own ecosystem in order to increase its market share.
Canva is positioning Affinity as an alternative to Adobe's Creative Cloud and should therefore particularly appeal to users looking for an alternative to the mandatory subscription. The port to Linux also opens up a niche for Affinity that Adobe has not served for years.
By purchasing Serif, Canva secured creative software that enjoys a good reputation in the graphics community and grants access to the professional market. While the browser service Canva is good, it offers limited capabilities compared to desktop software. With Affinity, Canva covers almost the entire creative chain, which makes the offering interesting for corporate clients. With an optional paid subscription, users get access to advanced AI features and additional templates.
With the layoffs, Canva is following in the footsteps of other tech companies that are also currently cutting jobs. Due to the influence of AI, old roles are disappearing, new ones are being created, and processes are changing. The growth that is falling behind forecasts is likely just an additional reason for a restructuring.
Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
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