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Conspiracy or Stupidity?
A theme that runs through much of the reaction to FCP X is that Apple has decided to ditch/abandon the professional community for prosumers and that FCP X’s similarity to iMovie etc. I wonder if such were the case why they bothered with the FCP X development process — which certainly cost a great deal of time and effort — at all. Why not stick with iMovie or express?
Someone once said “Never explain by conspiracy what can be explained by stupidity.” Anyone who ever worked in or observed a large organization like Apple knows that sometimes groupthink takes over and things just go pear shaped as a result. I think the whole business smacks of internal corporate politics more than anything else. Apple just screwed up here and went down the wrong path, so far down it with so many resources that no one inside had the courage to state the obvious after so many years of work.
As evidence, I offer the Apple website. Read the promotional material on FCP X carefully. Who is it designed to speak to? I don’t think it speaks well to ANY of the potential users of the program. I think the marketing folks were given a product they I have no real idea how to sell. They have no idea because the thing is a mess and some in Apple knew it and know it now. The main points:
1) “Fluid editing”? What is that?
2) “Powerful media organization” The justification for dumping the server product, I guess, but is that a powerful selling point for “prosumers”?
3) “Incredible Performance”? So it’s faster than the last one, ok, fine.
4) “Together in one app”? Who cares, except perhaps for the folks who thought the project had to be shoe-horned into the App Store model.
Are these points really the best case Apple could make for a supposedly revolutionary piece of software? It’s nonsense that been written for no one in particular. A revolutionary manifesto? I think not. I mean they can’t really explain why anyone would want “magnetic” editing. Can anyone see a kid with a DSLR all that worried about managing keywords? It’s almost as if marketing really don’t know how to sell it.
Apple does so many things so well that people want to assume that they must have some clever plan or strategy — or conspiracy to see it they way some commentators have. It’s also just possible that they’ve just screwed up because the hired the wrong people to do the work and they did the wrong thing and didn’t understand it, at least until the last couple of days.
As evidence, look at their PR strategy in the last two days. There isn’t one. They best they could do was set David Pouge up with some nameless product managers in a clumsy attempt at damage control, nameless because by now I bet they don’t want their names associated with the foul-up this has become and because it’s may not be clear, even inside Apple, who’s in charge.
It looks more like stupidity than conspiracy to me.
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43 Replies
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[Peter Wiley] “It looks more like stupidity than conspiracy to me.”
I wrote a comment in an earlier thread about this. I’m more on the conspiracy side.
Several years ago I heard about an agreement between Apple and Autodesk that basically stated that Apple promised not to go after the high-end post market. That was the vector Apple was on, as evidenced by their many purchases of high-end tools.
Now today we have Autodesk Smoke and AutoCAD on the Mac and Apple’s retreat from the professional post market. I don’t believe this to be a coincident.
Perhaps the FTC would be interested in this?
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Very good theory. Sounds plausible.
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They should take a clue from the “new” coke debacle. There’s still time to release Final Cut Pro “classic.”
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If a company could have that power over Apple, it would be Adobe. And Apple could have cared less. It almost seems like Apple has dared Adobe to pull it’s apps. So I don’t see them worried about Smoke, etc. They certainly aren’t going to sell more Mac pros with either the conspiracy or stupidity, so it must be stupidity. These are the people that brought us the cube, the hockey puck mouse, and the original MacBook air.
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[Bret Williams] “They should take a clue from the “new” coke debacle. There’s still time to release Final Cut Pro “classic.””
Was Apple trying to make Final Cut “Sweeter” to compete with Pepsi? 🙂
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Something I just remembered…
Remember a few years ago, a story that Apple was looking to sell off the Pro Apps?
At the time I railed against that. I couldn’t believe that Apple would seek an exit from a market that they were becoming so strong in.
Looking back now. I’m starting to wonder if that was true.
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[Dave LaRonde] “It’s not to late to put FCP 7 product support back on the web site, y’know. That simple act would go a long way to stem its current customers’ highly-justified vitriol.”
It’s not too late to admit a mistake; if Apple would just say “oops,” it can still avoid a shameful stain on the company’s good name.
BTW, for those keeping track, my use of the word “oops” above was in fact inspired by Mr. LaRonde in a conversation we had on Friday. Both Dave and myself remain appalled by Apple’s decision to kill FCP 7.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comDon’t miss my new tutorial: Prepare for a seamless transition to FCP X and OS X Lion
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/FCP-10-MAC-Lion/1POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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Clearly the omission of so many aspects of pro editing is a subject of debate, but the lack of inclusion of Apple Color in any way shape or form without a doubt speaks volumes about where the boat is turning. The only way it could not be EOL is if they released a standalone version like Compressor and Motion at a later date.
Anyone who has done any pro grading at all, with control surfaces would say this is a strategy. There is no way professional grading could be done in a sophisticated manner for large scale projects with the new tools that are provided by FCPX. So glaring an emission in the post workflow would suggest “conspiracy” if that is how you want to put it.
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I wouldn’t mind the loss of Color if you could actually export to Resolve!
Steve Connor
Adrenalin TelevisionHave you tried “Search Posts”? Enlightenment may be there.
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[Dave LaRonde] “It’s not to late to put FCP 7 product support back on the web site, y’know”
I very much hope that’s what will happen. It would be a very good, fairly low-cost, first step in the way of mending fences with a number of editors and production companies. I’ve seen a petition asking for this. Apple, however, is a lot like the cat described by George Carlin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzvm8k5kSjs at 3:00) who won’t accept blame and who, after running into a glass door saunters off as if to say “I meant that I meant that, that’s exactly how I wanted that to look”
A better, albeit un-catlike, step would be an “Open Letter to the Post-Production Community” from a named source at Apple that roadmaps the product in adult language that goes beyond “It’s coming it’s coming” though a NYTimes columnist.
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