Okay, you got me.
Back when I bought it in college, it was $300. I was aware that later it was raised to $500. That really sucks that they're charging $899. It doesn't make much sense (especially factoring in the loss of upgrades).
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Apple Reportedly Lays Off 40 Final Cut Employees
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Okay, you got me.
Back when I bought it in college, it was $300. I was aware that later it was raised to $500. That really sucks that they're charging $899. It doesn't make much sense (especially factoring in the loss of upgrades).
I have never heard of anyone pirating it. It is one of the few applications for Mac that requires a key.
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!
+100
Bob Sliga, a former member of the Color dev team, said that three members of the Color team (1 engineer and 2 QA guys) were part of the 40 that were let go.
Lethal
Lethal
This isn't looking good... Apple has been cutting down pro software development / slowing down on releases and now they are doing big cuts on FCS team. I'm honestly starting to hope iPad and iPhone will come down burning so Apple will go back to developing Mac's, OS X and great Pro software. I have no problem living without my iPhone but Mac without pro apps... well, it would be terrible -> I would be forced to move to Windows cause Avid on Mac, well why bother...
If iPhone suddenly crashed and burned, it would likely hurt mac sales and make the situation for macs, pro apps, and OSX worse, not better.
Apple definitely needs to show some progress with the FCS apps - while things seem to have slowed down, I'm not convinced that it means they're going to totally abandon or blow off development of pro apps like some on here seem to believe.
It seems Apple isn't committed on developing Pro apps the way they used to. If they were forced to go back to their core business (designing, building and developing computer systems and software for creatives) I have hard time believing this would hurt Pro apps line up.
The problem with Apple's current approach is that they are not fully committed on Pro Mac's or software. In world of pro software you have to be fully committed. If not, it means you're out. Why would any pro want to use some mediocre edit suit if they can get state of the art for the same money from different manufacturer / developer? From creative's perspective who has used Mac's for long time this is really sad development. The biggest threat for Pro Mac's wasn't MS. It was Apple Inc. formerly known as Apple Computers Inc.
You really do not understand Apple's business model. Two third of Apple's revenue is generated through the gadgets and the iTunes store - and both function very well with Windows and PCs. And most of the gadgets and iTunes users have never used or even seen a Mac in their whole life.
So, no, the gadgets are not a vehicle to sell Macs, and selling more Macs not even remotely their purpose.
Macs are more of a liability for Apple these days than they are a revenue stream.
The big tragedy is that I can actually see the iPad ( or certainly at least a future 20" iPad) being something of a revolution for Pro Apps - either as dedicated or complementing the core app as it ran on the main Mac.
For example;
1) Logic - having a hands on mixer control surface would be amazing
2) Aperture - finger re-touching and pinch-zoom inspection could be really fast and productive. Flick swiping - quick and easy
3) FCP - creating a kind of 'digital' moviola flicking backwards and forwards through clips, cuting with horizontal swipes, drag and drop onto the timeline - it would be a really visceral hands on way of working with 'digital film'
I only hope Apple's Pro teams get the opportunity to 'wow' Jobs as to how all of these apps can be re-invented for touch. It would be a shocking waste of talent, momentum and market share if they allowed Pro apps to lapse.
Worse, I also feel it would ultimately end in a 'brain drain' occurring in Apple and even a loss of visionary engineers. It would be interesting to know how iMovie and FCP teams interact - I wonder if there is internal competition and tension between the groups or they are all 'under one roof'?
Still, if Apple they drop the ball someone else will pick it up...
For example;
1) Logic - having a hands on mixer control surface would be amazing
2) Aperture - finger re-touching and pinch-zoom inspection could be really fast and productive. Flick swiping - quick and easy
3) FCP - creating a kind of 'digital' moviola flicking backwards and forwards through clips, cuting with horizontal swipes, drag and drop onto the timeline - it would be a really visceral hands on way of working with 'digital film'
I only hope Apple's Pro teams get the opportunity to 'wow' Jobs as to how all of these apps can be re-invented for touch. It would be a shocking waste of talent, momentum and market share if they allowed Pro apps to lapse.
Worse, I also feel it would ultimately end in a 'brain drain' occurring in Apple and even a loss of visionary engineers. It would be interesting to know how iMovie and FCP teams interact - I wonder if there is internal competition and tension between the groups or they are all 'under one roof'?
Still, if Apple they drop the ball someone else will pick it up...
Hmmm, "modern" codecs are much more power hungry than older ones...For my purposes, I would love to see an iMac with an eSATA port and I'd be happy as the proverbial Pig in Feces. I mean, seriously ... since when should editing video and compositing with either AE or Motion ever require two multi-core workstation class CPUs?
At least not with modern codecs it shouldn't!
But segmenting products by leaving away natural features is just unacceptable.
Imac's chipset support eSata, but apple won't put a port in iMac. And is it really so hard to put even express card slot in 27" iMac to get the smallest amount of expandablity for over $2k computer? There's plenty of empty space for that...
Hopefully Color will get support for 10/12-bit colors with nvidia 2011.
We've been waiting only 4 years about it then...
For a very long time FCS update has been every other year around NAB. So next chance is 2011...
Pro's are not looking for gimmicky "magic" or "wow". Speed, stability and support for industry standards are the cornerstones. All these "iPadish" features require too much arm movements making them slow and useless. Hence, no tricks just results required. Regarding iMovie, who cares, its a toy.
I applaud the two people in this thread who questioned a profitable corporation's move to eliminate 40 people from its workforce. People work in order to provide for themselves and their families, with the side benefit in the case of successful corporations such as Apple, enriching the few folks making all the decisions on behalf of others. It shouldn't be a controversial issue to raise such concerns or find them objectionable unless you are a sociopath.
As someone who works in the computer industry, I can tell you the following is endemic-- GOOD jobs are being off-shored to places like Bangalore. I am not talking about call centers-- I'm talking about jobs in software QA and even software development. Every computer company is doing this. Companies tend to be quiet about this, due to the delicate nature of these decisions, but just because you heard about a few people getting laid-off in the USA doesn't mean the overall development staff is being cut. This is a very serious long-term problem for the USA, but the fact that there were job cuts somewhere doesn't necessarily bode ill for the consumers of these products.
That might get cool points but it's going to be slow which means it won't be picked up by pros. Drag and drop editing is slow. Making a gesture instead of pressing a key is slow.
Lethal
Personally speaking, I'd like to see some developer blogs so we can get
a sense of where they're heading. They would be interesting to read and
might help end this negative speculation.
When Shake got axed we were promised something better and more advanced. After years of waiting we've got nothing (can't compare Motion to Shake. Its like comparing iMovie to FCP). FCP could've really used 64 bit but it seems that there isn't enough resources for QT X development. For Pro software stability is the key, something far more important then nice features. If your FCP crashes it means direct losses. FCS is speciality software and you just can't outsource Q&A just like that. I think actions speak louder then words...
We were never promised something better and more advanced than Shake.
The existence of 'Phenomenon' as a Shake replacement was based solely on a single, unsubstantiated rumor from 2006 (or whenever Apple announced they were stopping development of Shake).
Lethal
Highly unlikely. The success of iTunes and the App store has created a win-win situation for Apple. The rate of developers wanting to create Apps for the iPhone (and now iPad) has skyrocketed. Take a guess what you need to program all these apps...Apple Hardware. This is one of the major reasons their market share is growing. You can bet Apple is selling more Pro machines to developers now than to production facilities using Final Cut.
Are you an Avid user? I personally haven't used Avid before. I had the chance to learn it but didn't jump on it. I know lots of people in the industry and all the Avid editors I know are older and pretty much just seem like disgruntled Avid users that refuse to move to Final Cut or anything else! Even most editors I know that have used both prefer Final Cut overall!
What are your impressions?
Absolutely not true. I know a couple of people who were interviewed
in Santa Monica to work on Phenomenon or whatever name they would pick.
Apple gave up on the pro market when they realized a few hundred
thousand more iPhones sold with no extra effort brings them more money
than the entire pro division...
This market is tough, look at Autodesk, they decided to give away Toxik
for free (with every Maya license) which means they couldn't make
any profit on it.
No, I am a Final Cut user and a college student. Never used Avid before, I don't think I've even been in a room with a computer that had it installed.
Long story short, Apple bought unreleased Final Cut from Macromedia. First FC was behind Avid but quickly gained new featured and matured very fast. At some point Final Cut became more versatile then Media Composer. However, Avid has constantly pushed ahead with Media Composer and now it is again better (more robust and feature rich) solution then FCP. However, its expensive but if you're student you can get at very affordable price.
Here is a question for the long time apple/fcp users. Has Apple really ever stayed ahead of the curve when it came to the programs and hardware? It seems like they have always been on there own time table when it comes to these things.
IMO FCP never has been more versatile than Media Composer. Both have their pros and cons but speaking in complete generalities I don't think FCP has ever measured up to MC. I think FCP can get your 90% of the way there for a fraction of the cost and that's been a big part of it's success. People bought Avids for $25k, $80, $120k depending on the model and I don't think many people would be willing to drop the same cash on a FCP setup. The most attractive part of FCP/FCS has always been the price, IMO. It's so cheap you can't not try it out. Almost every post house I've ever been in has had a machine in the corner w/FCP installed just to see what all the buzz is about.
Apple has always been on their own timeline, but their advancement w/the ProApps used to push the pace more than it does now. It used to be just FCP ($999) and Cinema Tools ($999) then DVD Studio Pro and Soundtrack appeared as stand alone apps. Later Compressor and LiveType showed up, FCP 4 got a huge, and free, .5 update that added native support for DVCPro HD. Which was huge because for the first time you could edit HD w/o needing a big, expensive RAID. Motion got released after that and Apple offered the Production Bundle (a suite of all the Apps for only a bit more than FCP used to cost all by itself). Not to mention Shake was purchased by Apple which turned a lot of heads. Back in these days ProApp announcements got prominent placement on Apple's main page.
Color was probably the last big splash that Apple made. Final Cut Server remains a very niche-type product that is much more geek friendly than user friendly (I only have limited exposure to it though and haven't used 1.5). Less glamorous things like ProRes and making the Media Manager more reliable (but still short of Avid) help the product feel more mature but when I look at what Adobe and Avid have done in the last 2-3 years I feel like Apple has almost been coasting.
Lethal