Apple's next big thing for creatives may have just leaked – and you might actually want this one

Apple may be working on something called Apple Creator Studio. At the moment, it's not entirely clear if we're talking about a subscription, an app bundle, or a new name for Pixelmator Pro. 

The newly released iOS 26.2 beta 1 hints at a new release 

Code sleuths have been digging in the newly released first developer beta of iOS 26.2 in order to find potential references to future releases. And they found something. Usually, Apple's devs are very good at hiding everything that's not for the public to see just yet, but some things can still slip through the cracks. 


And of course, there are plenty of theories of what we may be talking about, and at this point, any one of them can be true. A subscription plan to access all of Apple's pro apps could be what Apple Creator Studio stands for, as one theory suggests. 

Also, this could be a rebrand of Pixelmator, which is an app for photo editing and collaging that Apple purchased back in 2024. However, this may be a less likely theory, given the fact that references to an iPad version of Pixelmator Pro have already been found. 

Discovered App Store IDs have also referenced iPad versions of Motion, Compressor, and MainStage. Meanwhile, the Cupertino tech giant is already offering Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro on iPad, and both of these require individual subscriptions of either $4.99 per month or $49 per year.

Services are becoming increasingly important to Apple in terms of revenue 

In the past decade, Apple has been steadily growing its revenue from services, and now they are becoming more and more important for the Cupertino tech giant. 

A high-end suite of pro-grade first-party apps for creative professionals could be quite a lucrative thing for Apple to offer. Of course, this would also make quite a lot of sense given that Apple's pro apps are becoming multi-platform soon. 

For now, we don't know much about this Apple Creator Studio, apart from the hint that it exists and the theories of what it could stand for. It's possible that we may hear more about it when Apple seeds the official iOS 26.2 version to the public, which, at this point, is expected to happen sometime in December. 

Creative subscriptions are something I would definitely be paying for 

Depending on the price, of course, but I'm all for paying for apps that really bring something extra to my life. I already use Pixelmator Pro, an app that is super easy to use while still offering a great deal of creative tools for merging photos together or even drawing, and I'm excited to see what this Apple Creator Studio could be. 

Of course, it's always possible that this hint is about something that's not coming anytime soon, or something that Apple may decide to give up on at a later time. So, let's not get our hopes up too much before we know more about it. But for one, I feel quite hyped about what it could be. 

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