UPDATE: FCP Daily has pointed out that this has been denied by Apple.
Apple Insider had an interesting article yesterday about Final Cut Pro. Basically, Randy Ubillos, the man behind FCP and also the man behind the much-maligned iMovie ’09 is back at the helm of the Final Cut Studio team. Apparently, there is a makeover in the works that will bring Final Cut Pro
What does this mean for Final Cut and the pro apps? Seems like it’s too early to tell, but I think all Final Cut Pro
I, for one, am a little wary of something that is more “prosumer” – will they leave out key features for professionals in fear that regular users will get confused? Will they make it too simple to be useful?
Time will only tell, but there may be a silver lining here. Since Apple is leaning more and more towards the consumer level products, we know that those products will be supported and frequently updated. If it means bringing more people into the Final Cut Pro
What do you think? Dark clouds on the horizon or maybe a dawning of a new age? Let us know in the comments.
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#1 by Lance on May 19, 2010 - 4:39 pm
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I guess I always saw Final Cut Express as the Prosumer version. It is FCP with some of the more pro-level features stripped out.
I guess I wonder if this means that FCE is being eliminated and FCS is simply being brought down a notch. If that’s true, it’s a sad day, indeed.
There will always be a market professional users, and that market will, almost by definition, always be smaller than a “prosumer” market. Why eliminate an excellent professional-level product just to meet the needs of a consumer segment whose needs you are already meeting with another existing product in your line? Of course, it is much more expensive to develop and maintain FCS, but that’s also why FCS studio costs $1,000, while FCE costs $200.
I’ll be interested to see where this goes, but to be honest, I think they should just maintain all three products, since they all meet a specific need in the market.
#2 by Shaun on May 20, 2010 - 4:39 am
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Dark clouds, indeed.
I totally agree with Lance. And maybe I’m being a little too cynical here, but that article really puts me on edge. I can’t see any good coming from a overhaul that shifts the focus away from professionals in order to target the , “mainstream of Apple’s customer base”… so what? We’ll all be editing on iphones soon?
I was totally dumbfounded when I saw the way they’d raped and pillaged imovie, but then I always kind of rationalized it by thinking: well, they needed to better serve that market, I guess. So now they’ve serviced that market and have FCE for the rest. If anything they should be looking into revamping FCE to better serve a prosumer market.
What’s wrong with maintaining a premium product for a niche market of professionals willing to shell out for it?
#3 by DiY Filmmaking on May 20, 2010 - 11:45 pm
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I definitely agree that what they did to iMovie was a travesty. I have a sneaking suspicion that the return on investment for Apple in terms of the Pro Apps is not very much, because I think the install base is largely pirated. Trying to find some numbers on that one.
I think that Apple should hand over FCP to another company and keep working on iPhone and iPads. It needs some love.
#4 by Steve on May 29, 2010 - 2:21 am
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I guess I always saw Final Cut Express as the Prosumer version. It is FCP with some of the more pro-level features stripped out.
I guess I wonder if this means that FCE is being eliminated and FCS is simply being brought down a notch. If that’s true, it’s a sad day, indeed.
There will always be a market professional users, and that market will, almost by definition, always be smaller than a “prosumer” market. Why eliminate an excellent professional-level product just to meet the needs of a consumer segment whose needs you are already meeting with another existing product in your line? Of course, it is much more expensive to develop and maintain FCS, but that’s also why FCS studio costs $1,000, while FCE costs $200.
I’ll be interested to see where this goes, but to be honest, I think they should just maintain all three products, since they all meet a specific need in the market.