Clam Down...Apple says missing features coming soon.

Sjazbec wrote:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/faq/

Apple answers all questions and takes its point to the discussion of missing features.

..

also noteworthy are the last lines of comments from this guy here, a former Apple-Shake developer :

http://digitalcomposting.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/x-vs-pro/

Interesting read from Ron Brinkmann. Ron however makes some false assumptions -- perhaps he's never been involved in the software/hardware purchasing side of post production video/audio.

But that's not how Apple rolls -- for them a high end customers are high-bandwidth in terms of the attention they require relative to the revenue they return...

Assuming 10,000 pro editors is the scope of sales (per Ron's guess, which I doubt is true given FCP copies sold is considerably higher than that) -- those editors often work with multiple workstations per editor (probably at least 2 and more like on average 3 workstations) ... so 10,000 x ($1500 X 3) = $45,000,000 (45 million) is FCP sales. Then we have workstation sales where a typical MacPro setup is around $20,000 not all Apple hardware so lets say $13,000 of it is Apple hardware 10,000 x 3 x $13,000 = $390,000,000 (390 million). Now this doesn't include really high-end post production work where they could be clustering 100's even 1000's of MacPro/xserve -- but those are probably much more rare, lets say 50 companies to be conservative (that I know about) so you have another 5000 x $4000 (xserve hardware) - $20,000,000 (20 million). So we're looking at $455,000,000 (455 million).

So if you're really a professional you shouldn't want to be reliant on software from a company like Apple. Because your heart will be broken. Because they're not reliant on you.

Now lets do the math on FCP X ... iMovie gets the job done for these budding editors and folks that want to "play" with video editing. Suppose I'm you typical iPhone dude or BestBuy camcorder guy that takes random video from here there and everywhere ... most really poor quality, never on a tripod, out of focus, over exposed, zoom-o-rama fingers, and a host of other bad things that the "typical" consumer does to their footage. Can iMovie fix these problems, rolling shutter maybe, even some stability issues, you can adjust exposure, not much you do about zoom-o-rama fingers. Can FCP X do this also, yes, to some degree but costs $250 more than iMovie. Can FCP X do it any better, no it can't -- garbage IN = garbage OUT -- if you ain't serious about shooting your footage, you sure ain't gonna be serious about post production either -- was it really that hard for Steve/Randy to figure that out?

Just don't expect everything that was in FCP7 to return to FCP X because they're really different products addressing different markets.

Since FCP X doesn't really have any support for additional hardware, it's very unlikely to drive any additional Apple hardware sales at all. So, in order for FCP X to generate the same type of revenue as FCP 7, Apple would need to sell at least 1,516,666 copies of FCP X. That's just to break even with FCP 7, and I'm assuming that's not Apple's goal, they would want to exceed FCP 7 revenue. I would be AMAZED if Apple even sold 1/3rd of that.

But if you don't believe my estimation of a typical consumer, just go online and search You Tube ... 95% of the video is crap, do these people care, no -- does it make any difference to their hit count, no! So I ask, where is this mythical potential market that is willing to buy FCP X for $300?? It's too expensive for the people that don't really care and doesn't have many of the features for people that do care.

Rob

Of course much of the sales of FCP were just initial, and then upgrade pricing, but still yes it is a lot of money. The question is, will they lose hardware sales heavily because of the loss of FCP? Will people stay with Mac, or will more move to PC?

I didn't get FCP until version 5 and I don't think I'm unique -- not everyone was in on initial version, it grew over time.

Yes they will lose hardware sales and third party support. Third party goes where the Pros go (if they want to make any money that is).

But either way, I think Apple grossly under estimated just how far having a "pro" level application can go ... $455,000,000 isn't chump change even by Apple's standards. I haven't even included all the post production places that also bought Logic Pro (and it's supporting hardware) as a substitute for SoundTrack Pro and use LP with FCP also ... that's another large chunk of "Pro" market they are tossing away. I can't think of any post production place that doesn't have Logic Pro to compliment FCP. I'd dare suggest that's another $50-$100 million lost revenue also. I would think most companies (including Apple) don't view HALF a Billion in revenue as "irrelevant".

I don't get this at all, it's like Steve and Randy just didn't think this thru at all or someone was feeding them inaccurate and poorly researched information about their "Pro" applications and it's true existing revenue. But there again, when someone orders a bunch of MacPro's or xserve, there is no "link" estabished between the purchase and reason for purchase (Apple just see them as purchases tied to nothing) ... but one would have hoped Steve or Randy would have made that association ... apparently not?

Anyway, it's probably too late, I know I've moved on and it's going to be yet another expensive road ... but for some folks this might not only be the end of the line for FCP, but the end of the line for their post production company ... kinda sad and very disappointing.

Rob A. said:"I don't get this at all, it's like Steve and Randy just didn't think this thru at all or someone was feeding them inaccurate and poorly researched information about their "Pro" applications and it's true existing revenue."

Randy, Speak up!!!!

Jonah Lee Walker wrote:

Of course much of the sales of FCP were just initial, and then upgrade pricing, but still yes it is a lot of money. The question is, will they lose hardware sales heavily because of the loss of FCP? Will people stay with Mac, or will more move to PC?

The whole Mac PRO hardware series was initially launched to give the PRO software series a powerful home. At least that's how I understand it.

Without the Pro software you don't really have the need for a powerful (and expensive) Mac Pro. And if people move to other software solutions they'll very likely switch to a cheaper hardware solution (meaning PC) as well.

Especially because those programs run better on a PC.

Paul Cuciti wrote:

Rob A. said:"I don't get this at all, it's like Steve and Randy just didn't think this thru at all or someone was feeding them inaccurate and poorly researched information about their "Pro" applications and it's true existing revenue."

Randy, Speak up!!!!

Crickets? Have you seen Randy recently? Maybe Randy went back to Sissors and Tape 😉

May as well drop MacPro and MacBookPro now. Pro's are out, the one's with money ... the "masses" are back in, the one's without money.

Larry Jordan has a post on Lion with FCP X, and after all everyone's talk about how Lion was going to make FCP X great, it add zero to FXP X.

a couple of weeks ago, I contacted Apple to see if Lion would bring any new features to Final Cut Pro X. Apple told me that it would not. My hope is that Apple will have new updates for FCP X in the near future, however, I don’t expect that at the same time as a Lion release.

Exactly as I always figured. If FCP X had dependencies on Lion they would have waited to release it. Too bad.

Why, you are supposed to get "Auto Save" with "Versions", "Multitouch Gestures", "Resume" and other 246 features pros cannot live without.

Is this thread still going... since Randy never got back to me and he doesn't appear on the corporate contacts (from what I hear inside), you folks need to look at Adobe's products. 50% discount to all FCP 7 users ... that's a good deal.

Sad to see FCP end like this ... FCP was the main reason why I started buying other Apple products like my MacPro, iPhone, iMac, mini's, etc. etc.

I've lost interested in any Apple products.

I think what Steve Jobs gambled here (and lost) is that "Pros" have a very wide reaching influence on all aspects of Apple's products and services (well beyond just FCP) ... I know I've personally got atleast 95 people involved in Apple's software/hardware. I know other "Pros" that have got considerably more "regular" folks involved in Apple's products. So although the "Pro" market maybe small, the "Pro" influence is considerably larger.

But like I've said before, with the amount of resources (money) now available to Apple, there was and is no reason why they would produce such a poor quality and feature missing product like FCPX. The ONLY conclusion that can be made is that Apple doesn't want Pro applications and they don't want Pro hardware ... not now, not in the future, not ever.

Sad reality and I'm certain this decision by Apple will come back to haunt them ... about the same time they relocate their Headquarters to China so they can stop saying "Designed in California" and just say "Designed and Made in China" (along with every other Apple product). Apple the iGadget company, if you're not serious, neither are we, come play in iGadget wonderland.

Apple's stock is going through the roof, investor's are happy... pro users are unfortunately, a niche market. Apple is a hardware company, all of the software is in a sense, designed to sell hardware. You want to play with Apple, be prepared to play the upgrade game. What I find disturbing is Apple's distaste for 3rd part vendors, they seem to want complete control over content.

I see Lion just broke the previous version of Logic_Pro (Logic 8) Logic is at version 9 and already the previous version is obsolete? Most studios won't run Logic 9 because of the bugs so they are stuck with Leopard and Logic 8. Planned obsolescence seems to be coming at shorter intervals.

Hey Rob,

Good point there. Never thought of the fact that pros could be a strong influence for other users to buy something. I know a lot of people get something because "the pros use it" and not because it's any real use to them.

I will say though that I do hope that Apple soon fixes all the issues with FCP X. I'll also say that in my workflow, FCP X can work and get by without FCP 7 (I say get by because a lot of bugs certainly slow you down significantly) but I know that more advanced workflows it's worthless.

I will say though that I'm certainly a convert of the "skimmer". After using that for a bit, I am loving that. I've found I can go through footage MUCH quicker than I could in FCP 7 or anything else and I found myself greatly missing it when going back to FCP 7 to work on more important projects.

Has some great and fantastic stuff, but I agree that it's certainly too broken right now to rely on.