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Apple’s Annoucements
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Agreed. Word processing has already become commoditized by GoogleDocs. iWork as a valued added option for users. Microsoft Office as the monopoly software is the only looser here. And the longer Redmond lets it remain barred from mobile platforms, the more irrelevant it will become.
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[Andrew Kimery] “I would be surprised if they followed similar suit w/their higher end/pro products.”
I think the market conditions given the initial very bad PR (rightfully in many respects), make this case a bit different.
[Andrew Kimery] “There is a 30-day trial for those interested in kicking X’s tires and if you are someone that’s ready, willing and waiting to drop a few grand on a MacPro Tube I can’t see the $299 price point of X being the major sticking point. “
The PR issue is that some did buy it since it was worth exploring and ultimately decided there were still too many holes to be filled. It’s that particular niche that will likely be most upset and most vocal about paying for something they wished would have happened within updates. Another round of bad PR vs $300 and the loss of potential MacPro sales may not be something Apple wants to suffer. It’s not about Apple giving it “free” to everyone as an update but offering, If you really like what you see know, upgrade your computer to a MacPro and you’ll get FCPX. Basically it’s converting the “maybes” to MacPro sales. Just to be clear I’m specifically tying to to MacPro sales not all Mac sales. Free with MacPro purchase only.
[Andrew Kimery] “Of course I never would’ve guessed Blackmagic would be giving away versions of Resolve like party favors so WTF do I know?”
A good reason for me to speculate Apple might just include FCPX with MacPro.
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[Marcus Moore] “Agreed. Word processing has already become commoditized by GoogleDocs. iWork as a valued added option for users. Microsoft Office as the monopoly software is the only looser here.”
BTW I think Apple’s motive is what I think might be a migration strategy. So I’ll explain.
Apple’s motive with FCPX is that it’s Mac only. Avid has been cross platform. While PPro has been available on both as well up until the CC one would have to commit. It’s now very easy to dump Apple entirely and move to Windows without a software repurchase.With iWorks and iLife free on iOS (and probably most iOS users are on Windows computers) and now iWorks free as part of iCloud, it becomes much easier to Windows users to move to Macs.
To put it succinctly, Apple is using software and service either to facilitate migration or, otherwise, lock you into their ecosystem.So I state the obvious… but I think Apple is expanding this approach.
[Marcus Moore] “And the longer Redmond lets it remain barred from mobile platforms, the more irrelevant it will become.”
In typical Microsoft fashion their “Ah Ha” moment will be to make it freely available on Windows smartphones only.
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While I think there’s great synergy and there’ll be a wonderful performance boost to FCPX (or any beefy application) on the new MacPro- I continue to think people are making TOO much of the connection.
After all- a vast majority of people who would be running “10.1” will likely be doing it on anything else than a MacPro. Whether they don’t need that Horsepower, or it’s too expensive, or their work requires portability, or they’re still mid-cyle on hardware… for any and all of these reasons I’d be surprised if 5% of the FCPX user base was using a MacPro by this time next year.
IF Apple were to offer 10.1 for free- I think it would come from a PR perspective. It would be VERY weird. And it would be a one-time “please give us another go” release.
But that said I still doubt it.
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[Chris Harlan] “I agree. iProducts are now their main course, and they are being threatened by some truly serious competition. They are giving away these overly-mature products that have little growth potential to combat share loss in the iWorld. “
What’s more important? Biggest share, or biggest profit? We should probably ask Avid.
I don’t know if Apple has ever wanted to build the most products, or have the biggest company, or most market share. Or am I just a nerd?
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I don’t think Wall Street likes any public company to not grow – I admit that expectations from analysts can be crazy when to comes to Apple’s expectations, but to a certain extent they are victims of their own success. Also, any public company will take profit over number of seats unless there is a clear plan to monetize those seats over time (as seen with cloud based subscriptions, etc.).
Michael
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[Michael Phillips] “I don’t think Wall Street likes any public company to not grow”
Is Apple not growing? What defines growing, profit or market share? Ideally, both? But if you were to choose one or the other? Apple keeps smashing records, having best quarters ever, blah blah blah, but the “analysts” still trash them, which in turn ‘artificially’ lowers or raises the stock price based on feelings.
It doesn’t add up to me, but I am far from an expert in these matters, I can only speculate.
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Craig Seeman:
“Obviously this is wildly speculative but just a possibility given where Apple seems to be moving with their utilities. Consider what some are guessing on the price (high) of the new MacPro, including FCPX would be a good incentive/give back from Apple. It seems like the right carrot to dangle.”I don’t expect the cost of the entry and mid-level Mac Pros to change from their current price, starting at $2,499 I believe. Apple has a history of keeping prices the same while enhancing the specs (or lowering them). Keeping the hardware price down is the best carrot to promote adoption of the much maligned new Mac Pro if one assumes they really do want to sell a lot of these.
The FCP X 10.0 user community is expecting that version 10.1 will be a paid version at $299. If Apple wanted to make a bigger splash with the upgrade to FCP X 10.1, they would just make it a free upgrade like all the other upgrades on the Mac App Store. I don’t know how they would do it in the Mac App Store, but they may have a way to knock $100 off the price if a person ordered FCP X with their Mac Pro purchase as they used to do with software items bundled at the time of a computer purchase and pre-installed by Apple.
Occasionally Apple is generous, but I don’t see them giving away a free copy. The path DaVinci Resolve has taken could always be an option: free forever with a few key omissions such as only good for HD deliverables and some key elements omitted. However that wouldn’t fly well since the Mac Pro is being touted as a 4K video machine.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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[Rick Lang] “I don’t expect the cost of the entry and mid-level Mac Pros to change from their current price, starting at $2,499 I believe.”
MacBookPro Retina is certainly more expensive that the MacBookPro. So much so that they kept the MBP around. I think it’s possible that the bottom to top price range of the MacPro “Tube” may be a jump up in price. I wouldn’t be surprised if the bottom price were in the $3000-$3500 range.
[Rick Lang] “If Apple wanted to make a bigger splash with the upgrade to FCP X 10.1, they would just make it a free upgrade like all the other upgrades on the Mac App Store.”
But that wouldn’t be quite the incentive to get a MacPro though as making it free on that box. My sentiment though is based on that the new MP will be more expensive and they may want to offset that.
Again not free on all systems but specifically on MP purchases. -
I’m not sure I understand were you are going, not that I disagree with what you say.. All I was trying to do is say why it makes sense to me that Apple would give away iWorks, but not give away FCP X.
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