A man looks at his Apple iPad in front an Apple logo outside an Apple store in downtown Shanghai
A man looks at his Apple iPad in front an Apple logo outside an Apple store in downtown Shanghai March 16, 2012. Reuters/Aly Song

In the past years, Pixelmator has taken the Mac world by storm with its full photo editing software and its affordable price. The image editor may not be the best in the industry but it can definitely be ranked among the best picture editors available.

The image editor gained big attention after its team was invited by Apple to demonstrate the app on stage at an iPad event last October. Spectators were impressed after witnessing how a photo was edited and transformed real time using the app which is currently available through download for US$9.99 via the App Store, Business Insider reports.

The wide array of tools and features available in Pixelmator can compete with that of the most high-end Mac photo editing software. The app has a user interface that offers black and floating windows, which give it an elegance that can't be found in other photo editing apps.

According to the people behind the winning app, Pixelmator for iPad allows users to create, edit and enhance images. The app can work perfectly both for Macs and iPads plus it can work smoothly for people who use Adobe Photoshop. It even calls itself as "Photoshop friendly" since it allows saving users' work as a Photoshop file and can support the most popular Photoshop features as well.

Users of the iPad and Mac can start with photos in their gallery by choosing among the dozens of beautifully designed templates or can even start with a blank canvass. After which, users can choose from its creative tools like the full-featured painting tools, which enable them to sketch, draw, paint, spray and colour. The app also offers other helpful tools like colour adjustments, retouching tools, dazzling effects and it also has an advanced image editing feature for professionals and photo enthusiasts.

Meanwhile for music and video, the tech giant proclaimed Beyonce as its artist of the year, Taylor Swift's "1989" was album of the year and Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" was hailed song of the year. "Guardians of the Galaxy" was awarded this year's best blockbuster.

Google has not yet released its own sales or top grossing charts for Android apps in 2014. But expect that it will have its own set of editorial picks as it recently launched a best apps promotion for 2014.