For almost as long as I’ve been a Mac user, Evernote has been an application I’ve used almost daily. But the last few years have been challenging for the company with increased competition and the lack of a clear vision. Now, Evernote has been acquired by an Italian company called Bending Spoons. According to Bending Spoons’ CEO Luca Ferrari the aim is to boost Evernote with its “proprietary technologies” to “augment its usefulness” and “strengthen its reach.”
For a long time, it was the app I used to do a lot of my writing. Almost every article I wrote for Lifehacker was penned within Evernote and I have it linked to my desktop scanner so every piece of paper (receipts, letters, bills, etc) is scanned and stored there. But, in terms of actually note taking, that job has completely shifted to Notability for me.
My feeling is that when Apple released the Apple Pencil, it changed the game for note taking apps. Evernote was very slow and clunky when it came to taking advantage of the Apple Pencil. Which was a surprise given Evernote was such an Apple-centric product. And, to fulfil Evernote’s purpose as a tool that “remembers the past, builds connections, and creates new ideas for the future” it has become more complex to use.
Hopefully, Evernote’s future is clearer but changes to its free offering, pricing structure and issues with the app’s reliability (which have been fixed) tarnished the product’s reputation. It remains to be seen if Bending Spoons can restore that reputation and bring Evernote back to prominence in the Apple software universe.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.