Apple Reportedly Lays Off 40 Final Cut Employees

[MacRumors]

AE Portal News reported last week on a Twitter post claiming that Apple has laid off 40 members of its Final Cut team focused on the company's professional-level video editing software tools. The cuts were apparently focused on remote teams based in the Los Angeles and Austin areas.

And while it doesn't mean that Final Cut is doomed, it is interesting that Pro App teams in LA and Austin were cut so confidently before NAB.

Apple's last major release to its Final Cut Studio product was made in July 2009, bringing a number of new features and a lower price tag to the company's highly-regarded video editing suite.

Article Link: Apple Reportedly Lays Off 40 Final Cut Employees

 

[funnyent]

Hopefully that doesn't mean that Final Cut sales are slowing. So many annoying people pirate it instead of paying.

 

[trainguy77]

This could just be them attempting to centralize the team.

 

[racketeer71]

Well, it seems a natural move since none of the applications in Final Cut Studio seems to fit in an iPad Apple world.

 

[Artful Dodger]

^^^ I would hope that is what they are aiming for because from those that I know that use it they really like it. Also not sure if 40 is a large number of software employees for one program and how they were placed within the development structure of it as well.

 

[Bob Knob]

All I can say... a trimming fat move, these were not programmers

 

[opeter]

Yes, it seems, that Apple (Jobs) sees it's future as an iGadget company. So, it is questionable, if there will be more refreshes to the Pro section of the Mac Computers.

Does this mean, they will in the comming years drop the Computer manufacturing all together?

 

[bobbleheadbob]

It's always terrible when companies make these kind of moves. Apple is doing so well now, why lay people off when they've billions of excess capital in the bank?

 

[jaw04005]

I don't know what the Los Angeles team does, but I do believe Final Cut Pro professional phone support comes from Austin.

Austin is also the headquarters of AppleCare.

 

[puckhead193]

I hope this isn't the beginning of the end of FC.. I guess then I would have to start to re-learn avid and that god-dam red arrow!

 

[MacFly123]

Hopefully that doesn't mean that Final Cut sales are slowing. So many annoying people pirate it instead of paying.

I have never heard of anyone pirating it. It is one of the few applications for Mac that requires a key.

All I can say... a trimming fat move, these were not programmers

I hope you are right!!!

I have been worried about the pro area with Apple lately! The hope I see is that they just took Logic and Aperture 64bit! Why would they do that if they are going to ditch the pro apps? And if they were going to get rid of any pro apps, I think they would start with Aperture, then Logic, and Final Cut last. Final Cut is HUGE in the industry!

I am a video producer and I don't want to imagine my life and profession without FCS and Macs!

Apple can make all the gadgets they want, iPhone, iPad, whatever, I don't care because I love those products too, but PLEASE don't abandon us Apple! You have been the professional creative tools maker for so long and have done such a good job!

I know things have been slow lately in the pro area, but I think that was a combination of the recession and the pro apps not being 64bit and optimized to use all the technologies in Mac OS X like Open CL and Grand Central. I don't think many pros want to upgrade to an 8-core Mac Pro with 32 GB of RAM when the pro apps like Final Cut can't even take advantage of that! I have to say I was a bit disappointed with FCS3! We also need another LED Cinema Display bigger than 24", preferably 32"! Bake some Shake into Motion as well!

If FCS was 64bit and optimized for Snow Leopard, I would wait for the Mac Pro refresh on the horizon and drop $20,000-$30,000 EASY on a new system and software!

COME ON APPLE make us proud!

 

[baryon]

FCP is the only good video editor for Mac... Premiere for Mac sucks, although its Windows counterpart is pretty good in terms of performance.

I really don't think they would stop making Final Cut Pro, with so many people using it... It just needs a new user interface because this looks very, very old, but other than that, it's an amazing application.

Maybe they're just stopping with Final Cut Express, since they have iMovie... Or maybe they're teaming up with someone... I totally can't live without FCP.

Weren't there rumours of a REAL big update coming like now-ish? (the rumour was like 6 months ago, haven't hear anything about it since...)

 

[Stridder44]

Does this mean, they will in the comming years drop the Computer manufacturing all together?

No. They would murder, I mean absolutely destroy, their user base and their profits if they did this. Besides, the whole point behind gadgets like the iPod/iPhone/iPad are to get people who wouldn't normally look towards Apple when purchasing a computer to actually consider buying a Mac. They buy the iPhone/Pad/Pod, they love it and realize it's made by Apple. They've never used a Mac before, so they figure if their iPhone, or whatever the hell, is so easy to use then their computers must be just as easy.

 

[LethalWolfe]

I have never heard of anyone pirating it. It is one of the few applications for Mac that requires a key.

Pirated copies of FCP are all over the place. It's not that hard to get a working key.

FCP is the only good video editor for Mac... Premiere for Mac sucks, although its Windows counterpart is pretty good in terms of performance.

I think you are forgetting about Avid and at least the Adobe Creative Suite lets you author Blu-ray DVDs.


Lethal

 

[baryon]

I think you are forgetting about Avid and at least the Adobe Creative Suite lets you author Blu-ray DVDs.

Yes there's AVID but I haven't heard much about that recently, the last time I used it it was a mess compared to the competition... But I really don't know! Yeah at least Adobe is ahead of things, Premiere is modern, it's just realllllly not CPU efficient for the Mac. I mean even scrolling the list of filters is as slow as hell, it's unusable! Adobe loves to port their apps to the Mac, resulting in a mess...

 

[haydn!]

I can't help but think some of you are over reacting. How does the loss of 40 jobs signal the end of the Final Cut software, even more so the end of Mac computers all together?

40 employees, amongst Apples tens of thousands in California is really no big deal. They're most likely doing what all large businesses are doing right now. Streamlining their businesses to make them more efficient. Multiple people in multiple locations working on a single product is not the best business model.

Plus, didn't Apple state several years ago when they announced plans to extend the main Campus that they'd be relocating/redeploying all the staff at satellite locations to Infinite Loop? This is probably just the start of that process...

 

[Bob Knob]

People have to remember that (for example) the iPod team does not take resources from the FCP team and vice versa... that includes programmers, R&D money, or anything else.
Apple is a large corporation with many completely separate divisions. What Apple has done that MS simply can't seem to do is keep all of them on the same page when it comes to the OS and keep the divisions from blocking/cannibalizing each other, to me that is all because of Steve Jobs.

 

[swissmann]

Final Cut used to be great but now it is just a bag of frustration. I've been using Final Cut since version 1 and have gone through all the upgrade steps. It was so great when it came out but now where it is compared to where it could be so many years later is just frustrating. I think it needs a major rewrite from the ground up and some innovation. Wow me again please. Oh and please do something more with Blu-Ray it is so much better than your iTunes and Apple TV offerings.

 

[jaw04005]

People have to remember that (for example) the iPod team does not take resources from the FCP team and vice versa... that includes programmers, R&D money, or anything else.

That's not true. Apple has freely admitted that they robbed engineering resources from the Mac OS X team to work on iPhone OS, and that's why 10.5 Leopard was delayed. That's likely why 10.6 Snow Leopard wasn't as big of a release as past operating system releases too.

Jobs also recently said that he had the iWork team create iWork for the iPad. Where do you think those resources came from? It's not like Apple's been on a hiring boom these last few months.

Resources are being diverted to the iPhone and iPad that otherwise would have went to the Macintosh/Application division. Those products are Apple's focus right now.

 

[appleguy123]

I have never heard of anyone pirating it. It is one of the few applications for Mac that requires a key.

KcnScrew, I don't pirate apps (anymore than I would steal merchandise) but I think that's how they get keys.

 

[elppa]

I'm surprised with all Apple has on the go they can afford to get rid of any resources.

That said looks like one of the workers was a tester. I guess there's no need for them anymore. I mean if Apple were the kind of company to release software with memory leaks that ate up a harddisk, bugs which delete user accounts then you'd think they'd need more testers. Hang on...

 

[BlueRevolution]

That's not true. Apple has freely admitted that they robbed engineering resources from the Mac OS X team to work on iPhone OS, and that's why 10.5 Leopard was delayed. That's likely why 10.6 Snow Leopard wasn't as big of a release as past operating system releases too.

iPhone OS is ostensibly a cousin to Mac OS X, and iWork obviously to its iPad version. That doesn't mean the Final Cut folks will be working on Photo Booth now. They might end up helping out with Logic or another pro app, but Apple can't just shuffle its developers around however it sees fit.

 

[tk421]

I am kinda frustrated with Final Cut at the moment. The job I'm working on now has had its fair share of problems with crashes and other bugs. Even besides those, I can think of all sorts of things the Final Cut team could work on.

I have never heard of anyone pirating it. It is one of the few applications for Mac that requires a key.

I know of some that will buy one license, install it on multiple machines, and then disconnect the network so the machines won't see another copy running at the same time. It really frustrates me that people do this.

 

[jaw04005]

iPhone OS is ostensibly a cousin to Mac OS X, and iWork obviously to its iPad version. That doesn't mean the Final Cut folks will be working on Photo Booth now. They might end up helping out with Logic or another pro app, but Apple can't just shuffle its developers around however it sees fit.

Maybe not Photo Booth (although really if there was perfect app for the iPhone it’s Photo Booth), but they can shuffle them to the iLife team or possibly even the team that does the iPhone OS video editing features.

If you remember, one of the Final Cut Pro team members actually created iMovie ’08.

Pretty much all of Apple’s products use the same core technologies and overlap. For example, QuickTime player for iPhone looks like QuickTime X for the Mac, the Photos app looks similar to the way iPhone displays photos in grids, Calendar app looks just like iCal, etc.

That is why we like Apple products. They can shuffle them anywhere they want.

Looks like most of these employees were QA testers. Heh. Who needs those?

 

[LethalWolfe]

Yes there's AVID but I haven't heard much about that recently, the last time I used it it was a mess compared to the competition... But I really don't know!

Although Avid stumbled a bit they've been the lead dog since the 90's. The most recent version of Media Composer really nice from what I've read and will probably pull me away from FCP for certain projects.

EDIT: From people I've talked to Apple only had a dozen or so guys testing the Final Cut Suite so 40 people could be a lot because it doesn't sound like the teams working on the ProApps are very big. With that being said, from what I heard Apple did broaden the net for Final Cut Studio 3 and have more beta testers, but compared to other companies that make similar products Apple doesn't seem to match up well in terms of man power.


Lethal