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For Craig Seeman: Avid sells of consumer line
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…if you work with a company that sold off their consumer stuff to focus on pros!
I’m too stupid to know if this is a good idea, if it’ll work, if it’s too little too late, or will be the final thing that makes them crash and burn…but absolutely nothing about getting rid of their consumer crap looks like a bad idea to me. Everything about it looks like a good idea.
Still waiting for that show of hands. Anybody working with a company that sold off their consumer stuff to focus on pros?
Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyouThe typos here are most likely because I’m, a) typing this on my phone; and b) an idiot.
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[Tim Wilson] “‘m just saying that they’ll keep differentiation as long as the can make money from it, and as long as there’s unique brand equity in the names Symphony and Media Composer. “
Symphony could become a “their hardware only” thing, and MC could add secondairies, up its price a tiny bit, and be software only with the option of adding hardware.
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I’m not sure how much one piece of software would push a consumer/prosumer to switch hardware platforms. Purchasing a new computer is a substantial investment, especially moving from PC to MAC. I may well be wrong but for someone who is essentially indulging a hobby or interest I imagine they will just find the best software available for the platform they already use. Of course they may own both PC & MAC, for example a PC tower and MacBook Pro, and I’m sure there are people who’ve switched to FCPX from a PC-based NLE but probably not that many.
However you look at Avid’s firesale though, that kind of financial loss can’t be good for any company.
Ben.
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[Benjamin Mullins] “‘m not sure how much one piece of software would push a consumer/prosumer to switch hardware platforms. Purchasing a new computer is a substantial investment, especially moving from PC to MAC”
I agree. This is an “attrition” strategy. People are most susceptible to change when they need to replace computers and the reasons must be compelling. This is especially so if one has a significant investment in software that may require a lot of new purchases. That’s probably one big reason why Mac market share grows slowly while iOS devices grow rapidly.
Actually that’s why the iOS app store is so important to Apple. Hook people into iOS and an attractive app library of solutions which, once invested in, makes it a bit more difficult to chuck it all for Android.
It’s also why the Mac OS app store is important to Apple. Make the software less expensive with a deep selection and people making Mac purchases will have a harder time moving to Windows.
These stores are the “cheap drug” that keeps people hooked into hardware.
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[Tim Wilson] “No. Don’t. Why on earth would you? You’re exactly who Media Composer was designed for, so ignore Symphony. MOST people should ignore Symphony. That’s one of the things they’re trying to tell you with the price. This isn’t a product most people need or should even necessarily want.”
Hmm. Isn’t that an odd way to try and sell a product? You don’t need it?
If being personal, we shoot, edit, part time composite, and color correct, and to do that in an Avid enviotnment is an extra 5k?
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[Chris Harlan] “Symphony could become a “their hardware only” thing, and MC could add secondairies, up its price a tiny bit, and be software only with the option of adding hardware.”
I like it!
Avid’s hardware was obviously historically limited, and at the lower end, obviously kind of overpriced, but as you move up the line, it’s actually really good. The performance of Symphony Nitris is off the hizook, so it makes a lot of sense to brand that way.
I’ll note that I used to sit next to the DS product manager, a system that at the time ran for $145K with storage — and all day, every day, he got calls from people asking him to RAISE the price. Another story, but an indication of the extent to which people respected the weight it could pull. That’s what Symphony should be laser-focused on: heavy lifting.
Then yeah, newly-muscled MC software-only, with the ability to keep using 3rd party hardware (check the COW – Avid’s performance with AJA is apparently better than FCP’s ever was) or hook up to Avid hardware as desired.
Perfect. Differentiation with clarity.
Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyouThe typos here are most likely because I’m, a) typing this on my phone; and b) an idiot.
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[Tim Wilson] “Perfect. Differentiation with clarity.”
The Avid Universal Mastering hardware looks completely kick bootie, and it takes Nitris to use that feature along with Symphony.
But Nitris also works with Media Composer.
You can also get twin AVC-Intra encoders, but again, Nitris and either Symphony or Media Composer.
They both do 3D.
Help me out, Avid. If I don’t need standards conversion, but I need secondaries, it’s $5k?
What I think Blackmagic would do, IF they bought Avid for whatever reason, is make that differentiation go away.
Here’s everything in software, if you need all the hardware options and real time then you buy a Nitris, if you don’t here’s a Decklink card.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Help me out, Avid. If I don’t need standards conversion, but I need secondaries, it’s $5k?”
I get what you’re saying, that at some point, differentiation will bite you on the ass.
I was looking at two cars – one at the top of the “lower” line (for slender hipsters), the other at the low end of the “higher line” (for old people, overweight people, or both.) Same price, give or take chump change. There were KILLER features on the “lower” car that I feel like I SHOULD have on the “higher” car…but enough features, comfort, etc. on the higher one, and I’m enough of a geezer that I went that way.
Which is to say that I am newly sensitive to this dynamic in even more venues.
The thing about Blackmagic buying Avid: any other year, the biggest story of NAB would have been what Blackmagic did to Teranex. It used to be a bargain for its intended audience at $90K, so what did BMD do? Made it smaller, quieter, added Thunderbolt, and dropped the price from NINETY thousand to THREE thousand.
So if BMD bought Avid, I would expect to see Nitris hardware at the price of a Decklink. LOL
They didn’t quite go that far with DaVinci, but because I think a lot of people under-rate Avid hardware, you don’t really hear about that as much as the idea of “a guy who knows what he’s doing with rebuilding software brands.” Which is also true.
Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyouThe typos here are most likely because I’m, a) typing this on my phone; and b) an idiot.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “What I think Blackmagic would do, IF they bought Avid for whatever reason, is make that differentiation go away.
Here’s everything in software, if you need all the hardware options and real time then you buy a Nitris, if you don’t here’s a Decklink card.”
Just a wild thought coming from the seat of my pants. Think Resolve lite and Resolve.
BMD strips out a few features from MC to further differentiate it from Symphony and then MC Free is released, a competitor to Lightworks only BMD has an upgrade path with hardware sales attached. That could hook people into their ecosystem. -
[Jeremy Garchow] “Hmm. Isn’t that an odd way to try and sell a product? You don’t need it?”
The price IS the marketing. One product is meant for a lot of people, the other is meant for hardly anybody.
You’ll differentiate yourself in 12 seconds, tops.
Not that you’ll LIKE it, but you won’t be confused. 🙂
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