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Apple lays off 40 Final Cut Employees
I am a little concerned:
AE Portal News reported last week on a Twitter post claiming that Apple has laid off 40 members of its Final Cut team focused on the company’s professional-level video editing software tools. The cuts were apparently focused on remote teams based in the Los Angeles and Austin areas.
And while it doesn’t mean that Final Cut is doomed, it is interesting that Pro App teams in LA and Austin were cut so confidently before NAB.Apple’s last major release to its Final Cut Studio product was made in July 2009, bringing a number of new features and a lower price tag to the company’s highly-regarded video editing suite.
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20 Replies
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I don’t think anybody expected anything announced this year, FCP is an every other year announcement. So that would put the next version expected in 2011.
The only surprising thing about this is that apple had so many people offsite.
I guess Twitter is were all the real news is 🙂
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I’d very much like to see some interviews with those former employees as to why they were cut. They’re probably under NDA agreements though. I wonder what their roles were.
What I hope is the case: Apple has finally ported FCP to buttery 64-bit Cocoa goodness (or better, rewritten the foundation completely), and requires fewer engineers to maintain the resulting (cleaner) codebase.
Worst case: they’re putting the pro apps into the fridge and winding them down. Or, EOL like Shake (may it rest in peace).
Crazy awesome case: iPad is the future of Mac computing, and they’re creating the multitouch future of FCP. Probably won’t see anything like that for a few years (no, um, 30″ iPad yet).
– Allan White, Video Producer, Luis Palau Assoc.
Quad 3Ghz Mac Pro, 10GB RAM, X1900 GPU, XSAN, CatDV Server
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I agree. Nothing to write home about. I think they are trimming the fat in the company.
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First off, this is from a twitter feed. No substantiating follow-up reports yet.
All companies have been laying off people of late, should not really be a huge surprise to see Apple let some people go. The fact that it’s in the ProApps division should not really be a surprise either. In the overall scheme of things, ProApps is a very small part of Apple’s operations.
I would not be surprised in the least if Apple ended up selling off the Pro Apps to another vendor in the next two years. As long as the right company picked it up, it could be a win-win for all of us, except then the price would most likely increase since it won’t be subsidizing hardware sales.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
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Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” now in Post.
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If it would move the product on I would be prepared to pay more for it. If we don’t get any good news at NAB this year I think I’ll be looking for my next edit software just in case
Steve Connor
Adrenalin TelevisionHave you tried “Search Posts”? Enlightenment may be there.
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Here’s a quote from Mr Jobs concerning the initial Pro Apps sale.
“[quote author=“Steve Jobs”]This rumor is false. Competitors have been trying to spread it around for a few months now. Apple’s Pro business is thriving and it is not for sale. Period. Steve”Who brought up the rumor last year about Apple selling pro apps? Avid. Who’s bringing up the rumor that Apple is laying off 40 FC engineers? Adobe. Even if it is true that they laid them off it’s probably due to them finishing up on a major overhaul.
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I would be very happy if people stop bringing this kind of stupid news to this forum.
Rafael -
If you read the other popular sites, this rumor is everywhere, it was first posted on the PVC website by Bruce Johnson, or at least that was where I first saw it since I didn’t see the Tweet. Kind of hard to avoid it if you read any other industry FCP sites.
Dan
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[Devin Crane] “Here’s a quote from Mr Jobs concerning the initial Pro Apps sale.
“[quote author=“Steve Jobs”]This rumor is false. Competitors have been trying to spread it around for a few months now. Apple’s Pro business is thriving and it is not for sale. Period. Steve””Well, as CNN shows, you can never totally trust what Steve says. He has a habit of throwing stuff out there as part of a misdirection.
https://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/17/steve.jobs/index.html?hpt=Sbin
He’s the modern version of PT Barnum for sure. 🙂
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” now in Post.
Creative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
What? A giant corporation laid off some of it’s workers?
No way. That never happens.
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