I just received my crossgrade from FCP 4.5 this week, so expect to see an update this week or next. I bought 4.5 a month before 5 came out...
Actually my guess is spring sometime, probably reasonably close to the release of Leopard. I'm not sure when NAB is (April?) but that seems like a likely release venue, especially since that is where new FCP releases have been announced in the past.
I just received my crossgrade from FCP 4.5 this week, so expect to see an update this week or next. I bought 4.5 a month before 5 came out...
Actually my guess is spring sometime, probably reasonably close to the release of Leopard. I'm not sure when NAB is (April?) but that seems like a likely release venue, especially since that is where new FCP releases have been announced in the past.
Crossgrade is the word Apple uses for upgrading to the Universal Binary version of Final Cut Studio. They gave really deep discounts for upgrades to FCS 5.1 in order to lower the barrier to buying Intel machines, even allowing academic licensees to upgrade (not normally allowed). Anyway, the last major upgrade to Final Cut was at NAB 2005 which was late April/early May of 2005. At that time, the former Production Suite was renamed Final Cut Studio, and all the applications received new versions (FCP 4.5->5, DVD SP 3->4, Motion -> Motion 2, etc). This spring, Apple released 5.1 which was mostly an update to make FCS Universal, but also included a number of other enhancements. Apple does tend to release free updates to FCS that actually include new features as opposed to just bug fixes.
You are correct that Final Cut Pro is no longer available separately. I have mixed feelings about that, but all in all it's probably good to have all of the applications in FCS if you're planning to do anything serious. I personally use every one of them, and have since before they were exclusively available together.