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Apple apparently keeps stumbling it’s way to success, somehow ????..
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[Michael Gissing] “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.”
While I generally agree with you on all of this, Apple is a corporation first and foremost. If Apple strong-armed Ireland to accept those terms, Apple is at fault. But my experience with many of the (in my opinion toxic) “municipal stadium deals” of the 90s and 2000’s – is that politicians literally THREW tax exemptions at large corporations under the umbrella of “economic development” and “job creation.”
Great swaths of large corporations rushed to those troughs. So if Apple, with a fiduciary duty to it’s shareholders didn’t participate in those perfectly legal offerings – that’s something the shareholders could legitimately take them to task over.
Having spent some time with a camera documenting life in the Executive suite – I can’t count how many times I saw that while the focus that the prior week had been on customer issues, suddenly it shifted to “shareholder value” as an earnings call approached.
I just think it’s more complicated than you’re implying here.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bill Davis] “Hey, what if each failure actually taught them something they needed to know?
“Failure is a great teacher, but that doesn’t make it any less a failure. I’m sure Ford learned a lot about car design after the Pinto kept blowing up, but that wasn’t much comfort to the people who were caught in the flames. While there’s no success like failure, failure ain’t no success at all – (i believe i didn’t originate that.)
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf -
[Rob Essers] “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.”
Seriously? That’s on Apple?
I use AV output every single day with FCP X and NO additional hardware or software – and it works pretty much flawlessly.
I can configure my 40″ client monitor to show anything from my desktop to the Viewer, to just the master output in a few clicks, reliably.
So I’d question if this is more likely an Apple issue, or a BlackMagic one.
That said, I think one reason BlackMagic has these issues is that they are swinging for an amazing array of hardware fences in a way nobody else is.
They are shepherding the digital video industry into a new era where devices aren’t the dumb coax connected boxes of our youth, but mostly just Vid-oIP nodes on a network.
That ain’t easy. It means every freeking device has a ear and a voice, and they have to negotiate with each other to work at all. The benefits are massive, but the disruption is equally massive. So I give them lots of leeway to experiment – and yes, fail, as needed.
It’s the only way to suss out this much complexity and figure out what’s actually going to work going forward.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Herb Sevush] “While there’s no success like failure, failure ain’t no success at all – (i believe i didn’t originate that.)”
Nice.
But it still misses the overall truth.
There are always failures on the path to success. Always.
The only probative concern is if those failures stop a company, or encourage it to improve.
In this case, I think the results this whole thread addresses – speak for themselves.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
One or more of us seems to have lost the plot – could be me as I’m the oldest.
I’m still interested in comments on my earlier request, in the light of what the OP wrote, whoever he was.
Bernie
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[Bernard Newnham] ” 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.”
We like the quality of the phones and the security of the iOS ecosystem and you CAN’T get a phone as good as my iPhone X for a third of the price
[Bernard Newnham] “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”
Do you offer HMRC more money than is legally due to them for moral reasons?
[Bernard Newnham] “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.”
Some of us don’t see them as that though Bernard, we know the economics of using Macs is actually very good, I used my last Mac Pro for SEVEN YEARS before I changed it, not bad ROI really is it?
[Bernard Newnham] “I can’t imagine why anyone would want to lock themselves in to one company.”
Consumer choice Bernard – in 25 years of editing I have never had a more reliable edit experience than the time I have spent with FCPX, I am VERY happy with iOS as a system. I never feel locked in because I ALWAYS have a choice.
[Bernard Newnham] “I don’t care who makes it, but I won’t be dictated to by a manufacturer. “
I’ve never been dictated too by Apple because I’ve always had the choice not to use Apple products.
[Bernard Newnham] “an early adopter at one of the world’s greatest broadcasters”
A broadcaster which I believe is actually increasing it’s use of Macs and FCPX?
[Bernard Newnham] “What’s in it for you Bill, and all those other Apple cheerleaders here?
“Reliable systems, fast NLE, great security, good ROI, excellent phones with very good camera, secure phone OS, AirPods, very useable smartwatches and a well connected ecosystem between them all.
Is that enough?
BTW this IS an FCPX forum, why are you surprised that people like Apple here 🙂
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[Bernard Newnham] “One or more of us seems to have lost the plot – could be me as I’m the oldest.
“You sure? A lot of us here are a lot older than folks probably think.
You can spot them often, as anyone conditioned over some years to comfortably write in strings longer than 144 characters…
????
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bernard Newnham] “I don’t know about anyone else, but I find myself lost for words.
Bernie”
At the strategy – or that someone here might have actually had one?
????
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bill Davis] “I just think it’s more complicated than you’re implying here.”
Morality is rarely that complicated. Justifying it or philosophizing it sure can be. It’s a simple truth that corporations can be immoral citizens whilst being perfectly legal. It is that simple.
I only raise these issues because it is easy to equate financial success with being somehow worthy of our veneration. Apple are no so rich and powerful that they are above reproach in many areas.
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[Bob Zelin] “EVERYONE CAN DO IT. If you were to say “I am a printer” – you would sneer. And if you were to say ” I am a data entry person” – or “I am a word processor” – you would sneer. And this is EXACTLY what will happen one day soon. Do I care – no – I am old, I will be out of it before this happens, but for young people that are professional editors – well, they are screwed, and Bill Davis will say “SEE – I TOLD YOU SO”. “
‘Everyone’ has been able to do it for a solid fifteen years with iMovie and an inexpensive DV camera though. ‘Everyone’ can cook their own meals, drive their own cars, and/or tile their own bathrooms. But not everyone wants do all these things which is why restaurants are still a thing, public and commercial transportation is still a thing, bathroom remodelers are still a thing…
Some things are changing a lot. Some things change very little. I agree though that if what one does can be easily/adequately done by novice (or a machine) then one probably needs to up their game before it’s too late.
Are all the gigs going to pay what people made ‘back in the day’? No, but they don’t necessary need to. Thanks to changing tech you don’t need invest a small fortune in gear or have to live/work in a super expensive place like LA or NY in order to make a living. Sure, some opportunities are rarely found outside of those to major markets, but that’s just the way it is.
And while I think there is more growth in the generalist side of things there is still growth (and need) for specialists as well.
For example, a few years ago I wasn’t selected for a long term gig at a large company because they were looking for a shooter/editor and I was just an editor (that used to shoot a long time ago). Everyone there was a hybrid (producer/shooter, editor/producer, shooter/editor, etc.,) and I just didn’t fit that mold. I would still gig for them from time to time when they were extra busy, someone was out sick, etc…
Then one day they brought me in for a few months to work on a feature piece (a documentary short) because they needed an editor (as opposed to someone that just knows how to edit). I did two more feature pieces for them that year and they eventually hired me full time because forcing everyone to wear multiple hats meant no one had the time to edit the amount of content they had at the required level of quality.
[Bill Davis] “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.”
[Bill Davis] “Great swaths of large corporations rushed to those troughs. So if Apple, with a fiduciary duty to it’s shareholders didn’t participate in those perfectly legal offerings – that’s something the shareholders could legitimately take them to task over. “
This line of thought is a commonly held myth. There is no law forcing publicly traded companies in the US to do anything and everything in order to ‘maximize shareholder value’. Companies are required to work in shareholders’ ‘best interests’ but best interest could be giving employees raises (to improve moral/productivity), not doing funky things with their taxes (thus avoiding potentially damaging PR and fines), and not dumping toxic waste into the local water supply (even though that would be cheaper than proper disposal).
It’s based on a 100yr old court case where Henry Ford stopped paying dividends to Ford shareholders so he could lower the prices on Ford cars. Obviously the shareholders were upset, Ford told them take a short walk off a long pier, they sued and the court basically that ruled corporate directors can’t simply ignore the the needs of shareholders like that, but that doesn’t mean the directors are beholden to every shareholder whim either.
Since then the courts and the government have given corporate directors very wide latitude in how to run their companies (even when some of the decisions upset share folders). For an on-forum example, somewhat recently on an earnings call a shareholder was a bit hostile towards Apple’s growing investment in green (thus more expensive) energy. Tim Cook told the guy that if he’s not comfortable with green energy he’s got stock in the wrong company. I also remember on more than one occasion Costco’s CEO ignoring the pleas of shareholders to low employee wages, cut employee benefits, etc., in order to goose the stock price.
IMO the ‘maximize shareholder value’ myth was popularized by corporate raiders, activist investors looking to pump n’ dump stock, executives with bonuses tied to short term financial milestones, and pretty much anyone else who needed to justify doing anything and everything (sometimes legal, sometimes not) to squeeze one more penny into their pocket.
/soapbox
-Andrew
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