by , 9:00 AM EDT, May 5th, 2006

In a rare move, Apple responded to a rumor that surfaced a few days ago that claimed Aperture may be discontinued. The rumor first appeared at ThinkSecret stating that the Aperture development team had been asked to leave, and that the future of the application was in question. According to Macworld, however, Apple says the rumors are false.

Kirk Paulsen, Senior Director Pro Applications Marketing at Apple, commented "The reports of Apple reducing their commitment to Aperture are totally false. In fact, we've got more people working on Aperture right now than ever before."

Mr. Paulsen was very clear on the future of the digital photography editing and management application, saying that Apple considers it to be the top application in its category, and the company plans on keeping it that way.

Apple also released a maintenance update for Aperture on Thursday that addresses issues with stability, performance, and offers several bug fixes.