Apple apparently keeps stumbling it’s way to success, somehow ????..

[Bill Davis]

[Bob Zelin] “I know it’s coming. I just don’t like it. Bill Davis LOVES THIS !”

Sorry to be so content, Bob It’s a curse.
Tell you what, tho… To make you feel better I might just go over to Cafe Press and order you a spiffy new T-Shirt with the best quote I read tonight on the Forum discussions of the milestone thingy…

Apple:
Now more Doomed than Ever!

(I wonder if Aindreas would like one too?)

????

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Michael Gissing] “I’d be happy if Apple (and Google, etc) paid tax in the many countries they operate in.”

If that’s a plea for consistency in taxation anywhere in the world, for Apple or ANY large multinational, good luck with that.

This was just on Apple Insider today.
Apple says it has paid $10.4B of $15.1B in back taxes to Ireland
https://goo.gl/cVJUbn

And that’s just ONE of the countries it operates in.

Ireland itself proposed the special deal to draw the business, just like cities and “special authorities” deals for large employers, sports teams,and economic engine class enterprises.

I’m pretty sure that as a publicly traded company, Apple has a duty to stockholders not to pay any more in taxes than they are legally obligated to.

The problem is that we all know that the nature of the “obligation” itself shifts like crazy once the deal negotiators sit down.

But I don’t think that’s changed in the whole history of the human race.

Let me know when someone figures out how to stop it. But I’m not holding my breath.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Herb Sevush]

[Bill Davis] “IMO, Apple can’t do what Apple does best (which is take chances when they see opportunities that might disrupt current practices, but that they feel may pay off in the longer term) if the company isn’t strong overall financially. “

Do they have to be #1 in valuation to meet the standard of “strong overall financially.” Why the glee? Whats in it for you or anybody else where they fall on the list of top 30 companies? If they “only” had a value of 600 billion would they be any less adventurous?

[Bill Davis] “Basically, the stronger the company grows after exhibiting a culture of innovation to the marketplace – the MORE innovation we’re likely to see. “

Since the growth of the company has nothing to do with FCPX or Mac’s in general, why do you think the direction of their innovating will be of benefit to you?

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf

[Rob Essers]

Apple simple doesn’t take care of improvements of FCPX in a major way that other manufactures do.
In 2018 for me it’s still not possible to use AV output without hiccups with Blackmagic devices no matter which version of the Blackmagic Desktop video I use. And that with an Imac 2017 retina 5K 4,2 I7. Preview with a client is an embarrassment. No problem with Premiere pro, Media Composer or Resolve. Still no only audio transition without workaround. Still old bugs. Is that Apple we love of taking care of stay ahead in our profession?

[Bill Davis]

Herb,

While these are overall largely silly “push poll” type points… I’ll play.

Generally. Nobody said Apple HAS to be #1. I’m noting their sustained success as a simple data point that shows that their customers appreciate their products and services and how they do business. It’s a counter to the constant foolish narrative that Apple (again and again) is doing things woefully wrong and that everyone with a clue knows that as soon as people “wise up” to their deficiencies, their success will cease. That’s all.

As to “whats in it for me” – basically it just is a “after the results are in” look back at my oft articulated opinions from back in 2011 that Apple was driving the industry forward, not dumbing it down, as many alleged. People regularly said they’d FAIL with their strategy. They have not. And in fact, we can see nice examples of how their competitors have come to adopt some of Apples signature creative efforts – buttonless smart phones being one – the FCP X skimmer leading to “hover scrub”, being another: to provide both generic and NLE specific examples.

And as to your last point, I’d argue that the FCP X story has EVERYTHING to do with why Apple is doing measurably better than all the naysayers expected. It’s another clear example of Apple hiring people with vision – supporting that vision even if it appears widely disruptive at first. They looked to reap longer term benefits by making those directional decisions. Apple does that over and over again. Sure they miss plenty of times. But they also succeed more than most – as EVIDENCED by how their corporate creative ecosystem has succeeded regarding market valuation beyond what any other modern global company has managed.

Every corporation has a culture. Apples is more oriented to looking for opportunities to disrupt and improve, than most of their competitors. And that approach now has yet another objective metric to support that it was the correct leadership direction for achieving long term results.

That’s simply worth noting as they cross this particular (perhaps temporary) rubicon.

Nothing more than that.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bret Williams]

Being that AJA has no such issues, I’d put the blame square with BMD. That said, my BMD device, which would rash the system constantly if I used it for almost 2 years, has worked perfectly for the last year and then some. The AJA has been put back on the shelf.

_______________________________________________________________________
https://BretFX.com FCPX Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists
Hang Tag https://bretfx.com/product/hang-tag
Overshoot Text https://bretfx.com/product/overshoot-text/
Outliner https://bretfx.com/product/outliner/
Clock Maker https://bretfx.com/product/bretfx-clock-maker/

[Bernard Newnham]

One has to wonder, Bill – what do you get out of endless praise for Apple? Are you are speculator, forever making a killing buying and selling stock and getting ever richer?

Apple’s huge fortune hasn’t been made selling Macs or FCPX, it’s been made selling expensive phones to people who haven’t worked out that they can buy similar products for a third of the price. That includes lots of my “poor” students. I have no idea why.

Apple have also made a fortune – just like Amazon and others – by not paying a moral amount of tax in the markets they serve. “We pay all our taxes in every country we sell in” – but we exploit every loophole in the differences in between laws to keep money that should be benefiting those countries. I read that Apple stash it away on some desert island – billions of dollars. At least Bill Gates is doing good with his Microsoft money.

I’m sure FCPX is a perfectly good editing system (though not for me) but there are lots of others, and they don’t lock you in to being a vassal of the great vampire squid of computers. Resolve is my current choice, but I have no loyalty to Blackmagic, it’s just convenient, for now.

I’m older that Bob, have spent all my life in television, and took my BBC pension a while back now. Technology has come and gone, and for many years I was at the leading edge, an early adopter at one of the world’s greatest broadcasters. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to lock themselves in to one company. And that’s the Apple philosophy – buy one bit and you have to buy the lot. I’ve always picked what worked, and still do. I don’t care who makes it, but I won’t be dictated to by a manufacturer.

What’s in it for you Bill, and all those other Apple cheerleaders here?

Bernie

[David Cherniack]

[Bernard Newnham] “What’s in it for you Bill, and all those other Apple cheerleaders here?”

Perhaps the notion of Fetishism is appropriate……..just say’n….as they say….

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetishism

David
https://AllinOneFilms.com

[Tony West]

[Bob Zelin] “One day Apple will “teach” every human being how to edit. EVERYONE will edit. And just like there is a small market for professional writers (and there will continue to be a small market for professional editors) – the VAST MAJORITY of what we do for a living will disappear. “

I enjoy reading your post Bob. You’re an insightful veteran of this biz.

While agree that there have been changes for sometime now with the technology and most of the post houses in my town have long shuttered, the technology giveth and taketh away. On the giving part, the 100th PGA begins in my town next week. I worked it back in 1992 for CBS when that was the only feed coming out of here for the tournament. This time there will be Directtv, and CBSSN also and pretty much everybody that wants to work will be out there and then some. The Show Book is 83 pages this year. My point is, it’s gotten so much bigger and it was the biggest thing I had ever worked on back then. High end production on HBO, Prime, Netflix. I can’t even count them all let alone watch them all. I know you are tongue in cheek a bit, but everyone won’t edit because everyone doesn’t care to. Folks can buy a cheap camera but it still takes money to get in the game. Need sound, lighting and all the latest toys that people expect to see you use. That’s why I don’t come in with a phone or even a DSLR. You are gonna have to spend some money to catch me. I liken it to an arms race. Companies look at all the gear and say to themselves, “do we want to buy all THAT for the few videos we do a year?

All software companies dumb it down for folks. They all do it. Apple just does it better imho.

I don’t like their business practices one bit and I trash them on that the same as I do any other selfish knucklehead that doesn’t do their part to put back into this country that helped make them what they are.

[Michael Gissing]

[Bill Davis] “This was just on Apple Insider today.
Apple says it has paid $10.4B of $15.1B in back taxes to Ireland”

I didn’t read the article but I know the back story. Apple based itself in Ireland because they were given an astonishingly low tax rate which made it highly lucrative to ship profits from it’s operations all over the world to Ireland. The European Union courts determined the deal highly illegal and threatened to make Ireland pay to the EU the taxes that Apple had fraudulently avoided under the illegal deal. So Apple is paying the fine for their illegal activities.

If for a moment you think avoiding the social responsibility of paying fair taxes for profits made is ‘good business’ then I’m not sure where your moral compass is. As I said, the problem is not just Apple. But the social consequences for the richest companies in the world to use loopholes to avoid fairly sharing their good fortune with the peoples of the world who make them so wealthy are that health and social services like education are not properly funded by governments.