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FCP-X: Case study for biz schools
Mark my words: Apple’s handling of the release of FCP-X will be fodder for biz schools case studies long into the future. It’s too early to know if they’ll be studying it as a success story or as a spectacular failure.
Success or failure? What say you?
Mark
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24 Replies
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Failure. Because they pulled…recalled…the current Final Cut Studio 3 software from all the vendors. This doesn’t allow people who don’t want FCP X, but want a more current version of the software (say those waiting for the new version, but let down by FCP X). That is a revenue stream that they are costing themselves. Especially since it is $600 more than the new version.
ALSO, schools will have FCP 7 on the edit stations, but incoming students cannot buy the same version, so they match up. They only have access to FCP X, and you cannot share projects between the two. And since those in the broadcast industry will be holding onto FC 7, and using it and NOT upgrading to FCP X, this puts those students at a disadvantage.
It might be a baby step to a new app…and for that we need some cross over time. Yanking FCS 3 was a poor decision. BUT, aiming the new NLE directly at their biggest user base might be a big win. Us broadcast professionals won’t find FCP X useful, but others might. Catering to the masses might be a big payoff.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Wait a second, back the truck up, I have a few questions…
As a PC guy who has never used FCP, don’t own an i-anything (never will) I’m not up to speed on the Mac-anomics of this situation. Are you telling me the they pulled the Professional version of Final Cut, because they released a new Prosumer (lite) version of the software?
That sounds like another case of welding the battery into case so you need to buy a new cell phone… I don’t mean to be critical, but I really don’t get why you guys put up with this stuff from Mac?
But again, that’s why I don’t own any of their products, shop at Wal-Mart, etc…
Chuck
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[Mark Raudonis] “Success or failure? What say you?”
Spectacular failure. More soon from a podcast with myself and Richard Harrington right here on the Cow.
They could not have handled this roll out or development of the product any worse if they tried. The only people happy are those that have a vested interest in selling products that tie in with FCP X.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
[Chuck Pullen] “Are you telling me the they pulled the Professional version of Final Cut, because they released a new Prosumer (lite) version of the software?”
What they did was add features to their consumer title, iMovie, and slapped the professional name on it. Some neat features to be sure, but there’s no hiding where this product came from nor the fact that it was designed to be used as a one person, one workstation product.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
That sounds like another case of welding the battery into case so you need to buy a new cell phone… I don’t mean to be critical, but I really don’t get why you guys put up with this stuff from Mac?
Answer is simple:
It’s a CHEAP editing solution. Like I said before
I know of NO ONE, NOT ONE COMPANY that bought FCP
when it was introduced because it was better than Avid or Quantel.
What it was, was cheaper by orders of magnitude.
FCP became a pro application because it was CHEAP
Tens of Thousands for Avid, Hundreds of Thousands for Quantel
A Few Thousand for a FCP setup.
This is not rocket science.
FCP enabled most here to set up shop. Apple owes you nothing.
I get a kick out of all the moaning here. If FCPX doesn’t work for
you Don’t buy it, Don’t use it and continue doing what you do. I’m sure it will
improve over time and don’t forget that most here don’t have a
clue what a CMX 3600 was and the next generation gunning for your
work won’t have a clue what FCP was, But they will sure know how to
sing with FCPX.
Mommy Mommy I wasted 300.00 on FCPX
No you didn’t, It’s new, It’s here, Learn from the first release
Don’t try to make money with it, Just keep up with the times
I could even make the case for NOT polluting any of your current
equipment or set up with this, Just buy an IMAC and experiment and learn.
Mommy,Mommy, I want my CMX
Give me a break -
Thanks for the explanation Walter. With the lines between professional and amateur severely blurred, I can see how they would want to market a more Adobe-esqe all-in-one solution that would appeal to the masses who want to feel like they are purchasing above average editing tools.
I just don’t understand why they would do this at the expense of their core of professional users? Guess the $$$ trumps loyalty.
Chuck
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You’re right Neil… Now your clients can shoot video on an i-phone, edit on their i-pad, one day they’ll decide they don’t need you any more; you’ll just say “Well it’s just keeping up with the times”
Chuck
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At this point in the timeline of the situation, I mostly agree with Shane, that if there is a method to the madness, we’re not seeing it, in terms of business decisions.
First, you launch a revolutionary new product, half-baked and incomplete. Well, that’s not the first time, and it very well could be that a year from now we’ll all laugh at our initial shock because everything that’s wrong or missing will be awesome by then. maybe.
But the second part of the one-two punch is the real shocker in this situation: that Apple pulled the previous product availability, apparently, completely and for good. Let’s try to game it out as if we’re the marketing guys in Cupertino:
Black turtleneck guy: “To get these stubborn users to migrate, you have to make them walk the plank: no mercy, no path of retreat, only ever forward. Since we only make money from people buying new products or services, there is no percentage in leaving the old stuff out there. We’ve made all we will make in profits from the old stuff. Dump it.”
Ironically-named unknown band t-shirt guy: “But this is hostile to our crunchy-granola hipster commune image with the user base. We’ll alienate our most fervent (and free) evangelizers in the marketplace, the high-end media-centric people who do our best marketing by word of mouth, for us, with an indie cred we can’t buy.”
Ironic facial hair guy: “The high-end guys gave us our credibility to start with, but look at the actual stats of the user base and they are only a small fraction of the total. Steve says tape is dead, disks are dead, everything is the cloud. The folks most likely to buy into that are the ones least invested in the old order of things. New users won’t miss what they didn’t know we took away. The new product looks totally badass, and that’s half the battle.”
Severe pony tail chick rocking expensive eyeglass frames: “We have to keep a balance between the youtubing kids and the hardcore broadcast pros, because the nerds want to seem hip and cool, and the cool kids need to feel cutting-edge and hard core tech, but without having to actually learn anything.”
500-dollar suit coat over scruffy t-shirt guy: “We’ll make it the third party vendors’ problem. And their opportunity. We’ve broken so much that was old here, there will be work and money for lots of third-parties to fix or add back the stuff the hard core user base wants and used to have. The product as-is is ready enough for the younger user base, and as the third-party developers add stuff, users can build their own sandwich from the app store, make it what they need it to be. We make money on the developers and on their product, we make money twice, for less overall work.”
Facial hair guy: “More champagne, anybody?”
(group) “Hells, yeah!” (clink) -
ou’re right Neil… Now your clients can shoot video on an i-phone, edit on their i-pad, one day they’ll decide they don’t need you any more; you’ll just say “Well it’s just keeping up with the times”
You are correct, They don’t need me anymore
I closed my facility in 2001
I had a old school big steel shop
CMX,ADO,Deveous,Chyron,GVG Switchers, 1″,D2,D3, BetaSP,Digibeta
and 32 racks of other stuff.
All done in by Avid, Things Change my friend,Things Change
So you ask, Why did I close my shop after 21 years?
At which point I also owned a few Avid MC8000’s
Short answer: I didn’t see a way that I could continue the way
I wanted to (having great people,paying good salaries & benifits
and making money for myself) at what I saw as a future of
constant pressure on rates and increasing competition brought on by
innovation & technology.(AVID) and a diminishing barrier to
entry. In short it was going to become the land of the digital slave
and it wasn’t for me. You make jokes about Iphones, well all I can
say is, turn on the news, any show, and you will see Cell Phone footage being aired. The electronic versions of Zapruder.
In the late 70’s and 80’s I was part of a
news stringer operation in NYC. We had guys out all night running around looking for stories. Two person crew, one carried a RCA TK76
camera and 40 pounds of batteries the other guy carried around
a 3/4″ deck (BVU50)and another 40 pounds of batteries.
These guys were connected by an umbilical.
That’s Over, Done, Stick a fork in it, replaced by a cell phone
or 200 dollar flip phone.
Don’t for a heartbeat discount new technology,
It will be banging on your door soon.
I also see the complete elimination of tape sometime soon
SSD’s are going to eat tape for lunch -
From my understanding Apple doesn’t use focus groups or market research in the same way as other companies.
“We do no market research. We don’t hire consultants. The only consultants I’ve ever hired in my 10 years is one firm to analyze Gateway’s retail strategy so I would not make some of the same mistakes they made [when launching Apple’s retail stores]. But we never hire consultants, per se. We just want to make great products.”
https://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0803/gallery.jobsqna.fortune/index.html
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