Aug 19, 2011

Evernote Acquires Image Editor Skitch, Makes It Free, Adds Android Version


Evernote has snapped up the best-selling collaborative image editor Skitch in the first of what CEO Phil Libin says is a series of acquisitions over the next few months.
The app, which allows you to share and annotate photos, will now be available for free in the Mac app store and in a new Android version. Libin says iPad and iPhone versions are in the works. He calls Skitch “the most natural way you work on something back and forth with a teammate.” The app is commonly used to take screenshots, share them, and add circles, arrows and captions.
The two apps will be more tightly integrated in the future, Libin says. In the Android version — now available in the Marketplace — tapping the Evernote icon in Skitch will immediately share the current photo between the apps. “Not only will we be able to significantly broaden the reach of their product, but we will also greatly improve our own capabilities,” Libin said. “The roots of our company are in handwriting recognition, and all that stuff is going into Skitch.”
Skitch will remain free as-is, but Libin says he plans to add new functionality for Evernote’s premium subscribers. And that’s the same business model he plans to adopt for the other couple of Evernote acquisitions, which will be announced before the end of the year. Those as-yet-unnamed products will be available for free.
The announcement came at Evernote’s first annual Trunk Conference in San Francisco, where the company also announced a number of updates to its main product. The iPad version has had a complete overhaul, and the Mac version has a new look for OS X Lion. Numerous frequently requested features have been added, such as rich-text editing and a passcode within the app.
This isn’t the first time Evernote and Skitch have been linked. In 2008, the then-nascent Evernote made a video about how much they loved the Mac app:

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