Apple, FCPX and Secrecy – RedShark “Guest Author”

[Andrew Kimery]

[Darren Roark] “Again, true to a point, the support contracts essentially are, so if you want updates you either subscribe or you buy the contracts AFAIK. “

And if you wanted an update from FCP 6 you had to buy FCP 7, but no one is going to call that a subscription. Subscription means that if you stop paying the software stops working and my perpetual license to Avid 8.4.x won’t expire on me just because I don’t buy another 12mo support contract.

Another big change to game is how quickly upgrades are rolled out. It used to be we’d wait 18-24 months between feature upgrades and now people start beating the drums if it’s been longer than six months. This demand for a shorter product cycle is another reason the software business model has changed. We saw Avid get boinked by SOX (and eventually delisted from NASDAQ for withholding SEC filings as it sorted itself out) for releasing free bug fixes that also included feature updates/upgrades at no charge (see Tim’s post about HDV for $49 for an example of the nitty-gritty of the line that Avid crossed). By going to a subscription model, or a 12mo maintenance fee, you can release feature upgrades at no charge to your heart’s content w/o worrying about violating fed regulations.

[Darren Roark] “On Deadpool they had developers working alongside the editors, since this isn’t the Watergate scandal, it’s just software, it’s a reasonable assumption they aren’t going to openly go negative in a case study article. They had dedicated developers working with them, you become close working on a movie with people. “

Adobe having devs on site and creating custom fixes for problems as they came up (and those fixes eventually becoming part of the standard build) was well talked about (even in Adobe puff pieces). Is there some major problem you know about that wasn’t talked about?

[Darren Roark] ” It will be telling if they do PP on Deadpool 2 or switch to Avid. “

Not DP 2, but Kirk Baxter started a post house a couple years ago and I believe they use PPro (exclusively or not I do not know).

[Darren Roark] ” What I was saying earlier is that Avid has done a great job scaring people into even trying FCP X here in LA. So in the talent pool war, Avid is still winning that one. “

Apple did a great job blowing up their own inroads into that market, they didn’t need any help from Avid. While Avid did get some of the former FCP 7 market in LA, I’d say most of that market went to PPro (even though Avid also ran “own your software” ads once Adobe went subscription only).

[Darren Roark] “If XML and multicam editing came with v10.0 I think the conversation would be much different now. “

I agree that if X launched as a more feature-rich product the conversation would be different, but you don’t get second chance to make a first impression. Many people still have the FCP X-at-launch version in their head because they are editors not tech heads and, there’s not much push from Apple to wash that bad taste away. Also, much of X’s functionality comes from third parties so even if you go to Apple.com you’ll still get an incomplete picture of what X can do compared to going to Avid’s or Adobe’s sites to learn about their respective products. The third party market for X is impressive, but again if you are trying to win someone over that’s just another hurdle to get by.

[Darren Roark] “Similar issues I’m having now with multicam clips and detached audio on the documentary. I’d be happy to privately discuss the specifics I was told. “

I do a lot of multicam work with detached audio (I assume by this you mean 2nd system sound?) and would love to hear what you’ve heard. Or is this just for Oliver’s ears? 😉

-Andrew

[Andrew Kimery]

[Ricardo Marty] “Adobe is not telling how many subscription it has per cloud or per product. So we dont know what market segment they are dominating. is it the creative cloud? the marketing cloud? or the print cloud?
Which cloud is growing or stagnent?”

Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you are saying, but this article (and click through to the PDF from Adobe) breaks things down by Creative Cloud, Marketing Cloud and Document Cloud.

[Ricardo Marty]

What pdf are you talking about?
Last febuary adobe stated they would no longer present a breakdown of subscriptions per product. Maybe you have an old copy unless they have changed their policy.

[Noah Kadner]

ps a mod at RedShark confirmed the author is actually Clayton Moore, who left Apple in 2009 and not a Lone Ranger alias.

Noah

FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
FCP Exchange – FCPX Workshops
XinTwo – FCPX Training

[Scott Witthaus]

[Andrew Kimery] “r you find an alternative business model like freemium, ad supported or subscription. I mean, in what way could Adobe compete the ‘$299 and free upgrades for life’ business model Apple has with X?”

How about “sponsored modules”. So Premiere could have “The Premiere title tool is brought to you by Yugo. Yugo and Adobe, partners moving forward”. Or pop-up ads on each interface module. Perhaps on the color corrector there could be an ad for 4K monitors? “After Effects Key Framing brought to you buy Bausch and Lomb. We have the products to see those little damn things”. Hey, it could happen! 😉

Seriously though, I will be interested to see who raises the monthly price first. It’s gonna have to happen.

Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter

[Ricardo Marty]

Their only claim to fame is AE and Photoshop once a viable alternative is presented imodium will be hard to find in san jose.

Ricardo Marty

[Andrew Kimery]

[Ricardo Marty] “What pdf are you talking about?”

Oops, forgot the links.

Here is the article:
https://prodesigntools.com/creative-cloud-one-million-paid-members.html

Here is the PDF that the article sourced (the PDF is dated March, 17th 2016):
https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/investor-relations/PDFs/71306102/ji83maQk1pI8.pdf?sdid=XPCNHDBW

[Andrew Kimery]

[Scott Witthaus] “How about “sponsored modules”. So Premiere could have “The Premiere title tool is brought to you by Yugo. Yugo and Adobe, partners moving forward”. Or pop-up ads on each interface module. Perhaps on the color corrector there could be an ad for 4K monitors? “After Effects Key Framing brought to you buy Bausch and Lomb. We have the products to see those little damn things”. Hey, it could happen! ;-)”

Just like the Amazon Kindles. You could pay full price for no ads, or get a discount for having ads displayed when you open and close the program.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Tim Wilson] “Why? Because paying monthly for the new thing is too compelling.”

What is weird about this in a software realm is that the new thing isn’t all that new.

If you ponied up for an NLE that was incompatible with itself 2-3 years down the line, what incentive would I have to keep buying myself out of my archive?

When I subscribe to a new device, I get a new device, I get the new car smell, I don’t need the old one anymore.

With an NLE, I’ll need the old one, or I’ll need the new one to work with the old one, unless of course the company wants to blow it all up and start over every handful of years. We have a simulation model of this, and word on the street is that it didn’t go well? And how often can a development company afford to do that? My guess is not very often as the risk is high.

[Herb Sevush]

[Jeremy Garchow] ” We have a simulation model of this, and word on the street is that it didn’t go well?”

That’s my favorite line of the month.

Thank you.

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