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Apple took 6 years to recover the number of FCP users it had in 2011
I note that there hasn’t been much movement here the past few years, but this bit of info contributes to past discussion:
https://9to5mac.com/2017/04/26/final-cut-pro-x-sales/
The terminology is “seats” – which is undefined except as a “kind of customer base” – in contrast to the last Apple announcement which was “separate installations”.
It’s unclear why the term is announced as “five and a half years” since June 2011 to April 2017 is by common reckoning 6 years (or 5 years and 10 months if you want to be precise). Also, I don’t understand the claim that they went “much faster from one million to two million seats than from zero to one million” since by Apple’s own numbers it took them 3 years to reach 1 million “separate installations” and another 3 years to reach 2 million “seats”.
(9to5mac repeats the “five and half years” figure which I guess is part of era of reporting we are in.)
Previously:
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/335/72675#72675
“What we’re doing is we’re growing that base faster than ever before.”
Richard Townhill (unconfirmed), Director of Pro Video Product Marketing, 2011 (at 2 million users)Points vs. Tangents.
Franz.
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34 Replies
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Point is…?
Scott Witthaus
Owner, 1708 Inc./Editorial
Managing Partner, Low Country Creative LLC
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Scott Witthaus] “Point is…?”
This is a good question.
Were you referring to the post above or things in general?
Others focus on tangents. It’s difficult to make a case for either.
Franz.
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Number of users does not necessarily correlate to best software. Factors like brand loyalty, wanting to be compatible with others and marketing strategies can skew all of that.
And best software for whom? What works best for me in my area may mean nothing to the way others work and collaborate or lone wolf. I care little for manufacturers claims about number of seats/ users. I take note of how the software that suits me sits with others that I collaborate with and if there are potential limitations like OS or hardware exclusivity. Regardless of how long it may have taken Apple to get these numbers, a ridiculous number of doco jobs I post are still cut on Legend. I would be interested to know just how many haven’t switched to anything.
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[Michael Gissing] “I would be interested to know just how many haven’t switched to anything.”
That’s one of the key points here, that NONE of these seat numbers speak to market share — a concept that implies a zero sum. One pie. Well, most people have more than one NLE, so there’s more than one pie. ????
I’m going to also laud the return of Herr Professor Doktor Bieberkopf and recall my declaration from 6 years ago almost to the day, immediately after the presentation of X, and before it even started shipping, that it would have 10 million users before the end of the first year. ???? I can usually count on one of you to bring this up for me, to remind me of my unparalleled exuberance for X, so I thought I’d save you the trouble. I certainly banged the table about it often enough, so it’s easy to find several examples of these pronouncements in our archives.
I went further and said that if I were in charge of Apple, heads would roll if it failed to meet the 10 million mark by the end of its first year. I was certain that it would be huge.
Not that 2 million isn’t plenty huge. But it’s surely less huge than it sounds, in that a meaningful number of those “seats” are in fact not using it regularly.
At the same time, it doesn’t matter. Apple got paid the same amount whether I downloaded it for laughs, or one of you downloaded it for life. I don’t mean that to sound in any way cynical, or that Apple doesn’t care how people feel about X. They clearly do, which is why I’ve been its staunchest defender on this count from the very first possible moment.
But I do still think that how far X hasn’t spread is at least as interesting a story as how far it has, even if the latter is ultimately the more important story.
Lovely to see you, Franz. ????
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Two million of seats means that apple has sold two millions of this piece of software?
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The question Apple likely asks themselves, is “How many additional MacBook Pros and Trashcans did we sell to support FCPX that we wouldn’t have otherwise?”
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https://BretFX.com FCP X Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists -
Sure!! I was asking myself If those figures corresponded to unique licences
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to answer the question “your point?” This was a marketing disaster for Apple at first — years of professional goodwill lost with a program the company knew wasn’t ready to replace the mature industry leading software in adoption and use.
so to take this long to regain that base is not a case study in “the right way to keep your customers happy”
I’m one of the several million “seats” sold but after realizing it didn’t do what I needed in version one (or several updates) i just let it sit on my computer unused.
Yes, they’ve dramatically improved the software in all those years, but when you lose a customer “at hello” it’s difficult to win them back.
And yes, i’ve used FCP 10 occasionally, but despite the fans who will say I just need to think the way the software thinks, it still seems unnecessarily fussy with assigning roles and secondary story lines and tiny undockable control panels …so much thinking different. Premiere Pro was a more logical successor to FCP 7 — tiny learning curve and it works nearly the same without all the transcoding headaches.
Andy Field
FieldVision Productions
N. Bethesda, Maryland 20852 -
Love the phrasing, Fritz. “Failure” “Years to recover” Fabulous neutral “reportorial” writing.
Let me play, “Spin the Headline” too please!
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FCP X surpasses FCP Legacy 10-Year adoption mark in just six years!
or perhaps,
FCP X on-pace to best FCP Legacy adoption by 40% or more.
or (my favorite!)
Once again, FCP X proves FASTER than what’s come before it!
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That was FUN!
Apple publicly announced at NAB both that FCP X adoption is accelerating – AND that the software went from one to two million users faster than it it reached it’s first million. In other words, it’s sales growth rate is accelerating.
Something I could have told you anecdotally from the communities which which I communicate.
And Apple is spending real money on human capital to accelearate that. First Wes Plate and now Tim Dashwood – and I’ve been shown links to ads in the tech community that indicate they are constantly searching for more very specific top level talent in the NLE space.
On to other NAB news, since I’ve started this…
One of the most interesting sessions I saw this year was Michael Cioni’s presentation at the LumaForge stage where I spent most of my NAB this year. It’s worth a watch as it hits the net. And a good chunk of the Apple FCP X design team was (semi stealthily) in the room to hear him. Which makes me glad. They aren’t trying to shy away from criticism. They are actively seeking it out and listening to it. Which is healthy.
Also, nobody has a clue where the industry is going. It’s changing far too fast for that.
Also, one of the MOST interesting things I saw at NAB were some charts Michael Kammes had based on AVIDs recent public SEC filings last week concerning future revenue projections.
For any skeptics, they’re here on the latest AVID 8k public filings directly.
Under Revenue Opportunities the stuff we all care about barely registered down below 4%.
They see the big driver of future profits as “Digital Rights Management”.
Non-linear editing – clocks in near the bottom at 4%.
FWIW.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bill Davis] “Love the phrasing, Fritz. “Failure” “Years to recover” Fabulous neutral “reportorial” writing.
“Fritz??
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