FCP X Update – When?

[Craig Seeman]

Apple mentioned “summer” so that would give them one more week.
Several people are saying they’ve heard about a couple of updates between now and November.
Apparently lots of developers are waiting for APIs. I believe RedGiant and others have said as much as well.

Given the pressure on Apple, the update might be delayed because anything less than a pleasing update with some improvements, it likely going to get another round of wrath and people finalizing the purchase decisions in different directions. In other words an update that might have been minor with bug fixes and a couple of improvements, may well be more major (and hence longer to debug.

[Gerry Fraiberg]

I would like to think that any update will be worth waiting for. And, yes, it’s better that they get it right. I can only imagine the thousands of lines of code “under the hood” that make it work.

[Craig Seeman]

[Gerry Fraiberg] “I would like to think that any update will be worth waiting for. And, yes, it’s better that they get it right.”

I agree but there’s a lot of people complaining that it’s been nearly three months than nothing. Someone hypocritical when people complain FCPX was released “unfinished” and then they complain that Apple doesn’t rush out an update.

Of course if Apple had waited until early 2012 to get out a more feature complete FCPX, they’d be complaining about how Apple doesn’t care about the “pros” because they’re taking too long.

[Aindreas Gallagher]

[Craig Seeman] ”
I agree but there’s a lot of people complaining that it’s been nearly three months than nothing. Someone hypocritical when people complain FCPX was released “unfinished” and then they complain that Apple doesn’t rush out an update.

Of course if Apple had waited until early 2012 to get out a more feature complete FCPX, they’d be complaining about how Apple doesn’t care about the “pros” because they’re taking too long.
“

you’ve kind of got their back covered in both directions there craig.

http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Marvin Holdman]

Hmmm, already had an update to Lion, and it was released after FCPX. Because Apple is stubbornly mute on the issue, I think most take the lack of even a minor incremental release alongside the near immediate bug fix for Lion as the closest thing we can use to determine their regard for the importance of their FCPX users.

I think the inference from the FAQ was that MANY of the problems that plague this program would be addressed by now. Hell, we aren’t even seeing a START at this point. I say that because of the emphasis placed on “third party developers” to alleviate many of the problems. Perhaps they are allowing a head start for select vendors, but I don’t see that as pulling them out of this tailspin, as there really isn’t the diversity of third party development needed to get this application even CLOSE to the functionality it’s EOL’d predecessor.

It would appear that FCPX has all the indications of a program that is dying in the starting block. As many have pointed out, competing NLE’s are moving forward with their development cycles as well and it’s only logical to believe they will take the “awesome” parts of FCPX and incorporate them into their products. One might assume that by the time Apple gets around to fleshing out this app, the other NLE’s will be use that much father ahead.

Wish it wasn’t so, but every day that goes by seems to render FCPX that much more inconsequential… other than it being a stellar example of how to ROYALLY tarnish brand image. In that regard, it’s an “awesome” success.

Marvin Holdman
Production Manager
Tourist Network
8317 Front Beach Rd, Suite 23
Panama City Beach, Fl
phone 850-234-2773 ext. 128
cell 850-585-9667
skype username – vidmarv

[Craig Seeman]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “you’ve kind of got their back covered in both directions there craig.”

Personally I think they should have taken their time and gotten it right the first time. The sneak peek should have been enough to show a “work in progress” and then maybe followed up with an updated peek or maybe an actually legit announcement at IBC so they could have released a viable 1.0

[Craig Seeman]

[Marvin Holdman] “I think most take the lack of even a minor incremental release alongside the near immediate bug fix for Lion as the closest thing we can use to determine their regard for the importance of their FCPX users. “

Different development teams, different issues and, yes, Lion impacts far more people than FCPX.

[Marvin Holdman] “here really isn’t the diversity of third party development needed to get this application even CLOSE to the functionality it’s EOL’d predecessor. “

It seems nearly all the third party developers have announced continued support of FCPX . . WHEN the APIs are ready.

[Aindreas Gallagher]

well yes sure, but a lot of the stuff a lot of people think is very wrong with this software would have been the same even if they had held off to quash the rampant bugs.

It would be interesting to know what they think of the sales and usage of this thing internally – whether they will feel in hindsight that they did in fact get it strategically wrong.

If as you say this software is a driver for hardware – which being OSX only, it certainly is – if the prosumer market say, aren’t biting in anything like the volume they might have hoped, well, then, it would be pretty interesting to see if Apple, in the updates to november, are going to give some feature re-introduction sops to the hardware market they had locked up before this whole mess started…. a re-introduction of some noteworthy element or other from FCP7, maybe not the source monitor, but something?
that would be a signal. And well, a total lack of what I’ve described would be a bit of a signal too mind you.

http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Chris Harlan]

[Craig Seeman] “Apple mentioned “summer” so that would give them one more week.
Several people are saying they’ve heard about a couple of updates between now and November.
Apparently lots of developers are waiting for APIs. I believe RedGiant and others have said as much as well.”

Actually, the APIs weren’t about a summer deadline. From the FAQ:

We will release a set of APIs in the next few weeks so that third-party developers can access the next-generation XML in Final Cut Pro X.

How long ago was the FAQ published? Two months? So, it ain’t like they got a week to go. It’s more like they are six weeks behind.

[Marvin Holdman]

[CRAIG SEEMAN] “Different development teams, different issues and, yes, Lion impacts far more people than FCPX.”

Sadly, this re-enforces a point that was made MANY months before they released FCPX. I can remember when they announced a major staff cut to the FCS team. At the time, many said it was a sign of “end times” for Apple and NLE’s. Although I didn’t want to believe it, I would say those folks were right now.

The point is, even though the teams are different, if Apple deemed this an important project, they would commit resources to support it. By all appearances they have not. Yes, Lion is a much broader user base, and it’s a MUCH more complex program. If Apple were serious about building an enterprise level NLE product, they would have committed the staff to make this happen. Apparently, they have not.

My point is, while there certainly is promise to the framework the commitment to follow through in a timely manner is not indicative of a company serious about supporting this product as anything other than a “toy”. I would imagine you might say, “they are on their own timetable, look at other product developments like iPhone”. I wouldn’t disagree, except before iPhone there wasn’t an established user base. Perhaps it will SLOWLY evolve into something one day, but other companies that stake their livelihood on building enterprise solutions will incorporate all of this “good framework” into their products too. In the end, the time you spend working with functional “today” products seems like it will pay off better than any investment in the “future” of this thing.

So why would anyone stick around and argue the point? I’m only here playing devils advocate to see if maybe, just maybe Apple will get their head out of their collective tush and create something that might be viable. It’s just that as more and more time passes, it becomes clearer and clearer that this is going nowhere. My only question at this point is how much longer is it worth even talking about all this? I hit this forum with less and less frequency only to find that nothing has changed, and there doesn’t seem to be any real follow up to Apple’s FAQ’s. Will they come? Sure. But when they get here, will they even matter any more?

Marvin Holdman
Production Manager
Tourist Network
8317 Front Beach Rd, Suite 23
Panama City Beach, Fl
phone 850-234-2773 ext. 128
cell 850-585-9667
skype username – vidmarv