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fyi FCP X and pricing
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[Craig Alan] “If the above is correct, I suspect that Apple is transitioning into a subscription model.”
It is just my opinion, but I don’t see Apple moving to subscription, mainly because they don’t have to.
Software is ancillary to Apple. Hardware is what they do and where they make money. Apple created software is mainly just to aid in the sales of this hardware. And I Bet they are more than willing to maintain a low profit margin in software sales and development as long as it boosts imac, macmini, macbook, and macpro sales.
For Adobe, on the other hand, software is their bread and butter. The maturity of many of their best-selling apps did hurt their bottom line. Folks just weren’t keeping up with all the updates. Subscription guarantees a steady cash flow.
Subscription for apple could hurt their bottom line if it adversely affects hardware sales. So I could be wrong here, but I don’t really see Apple embracing that model.
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[Clint Wardlow] ”
For Adobe, on the other hand, software is their bread and butter. The maturity of many of their best-selling apps did hurt their bottom line. Folks just weren’t keeping up with all the updates. Subscription guarantees a steady cash flow.”I agree with that statement. Over the short term, I have no issue with subscribing. Long term, there is no real incentive.
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[Clint Wardlow] “Software is ancillary to Apple. Hardware is what they do and where they make money. Apple created software is mainly just to aid in the sales of this hardware. And I Bet they are more than willing to maintain a low profit margin in software sales and development as long as it boosts imac, macmini, macbook, and macpro sales.”
I understand this opinion, but I think it shortchanges the reality of how software and hardware interconnect in a company the size of Apple.
Having robust and healthy software resources in house does far more than just provide a driver for hardware sales – it maintains institutional expertise in the code that enables the hardware to do ANYTHING.
Imagine for a second that Apple someday releases the long expected Apple TV. And in it’s early days of release, there turns out to be some minor, but annoying glitch in how it interconnects with a class of external gear.
If you’re a hardware ONLY company, you have to go out and source (likely on an emergency basis) coding talent and ramp up an effort to identify and fix the problem.
If, on the other hand, you’re a company that has robust software expertise in house – somebody simply contacts the software team and assigns the staff assets necessary to diagnose and fix the problem.
For all the talk about how Apple is a hardware firm that gives short shrift to software, the history of their biggest successes – from iTunes to the iPhone to yes, FCP-X – is one of working exceptionally hard to do the best work they can in BOTH realms.
The real core of the Apple brand has never been that they do ONE things really well. But that they bring as much excellence as they can drive into the entire ecosystem of what they produce.
FWIW
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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[Bill Davis] “For all the talk about how Apple is a hardware firm that gives short shrift to software, the history of their biggest successes – from iTunes to the iPhone to yes, FCP-X – is one of working exceptionally hard to do the best work they can in BOTH realms.”
I wasn’t saying Apple necessarily gives the “short shrift” to its software. I was mainly bringing up the hardware point as reason why I don’t think Apple will move over to a subscription model. Because it doesn’t have to. Hardware is what brings in the majority of its cash. In a way this could work to the advantage of software development because said software does not have to meet the profit margin of a software-only company. It is subsidized by hardware sales. In a way it gives software developers more freedom in taking big risky steps.
I am curious, Bill. Do you think Apple would have handed Final Cut such a massive overhaul and change for FCP X if that software was its main source of income?
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[Bill Davis] “The real core of the Apple brand has never been that they do ONE things really well. But that they bring as much excellence as they can drive into the entire ecosystem of what they produce.”
Well said Bill… to plagiarize someone else “the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts”…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill
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That was my point.
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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[Clint Wardlow] “I am curious, Bill. Do you think Apple would have handed Final Cut such a massive overhaul and change for FCP X if that software was its main source of income?”
Yep.
If you wanted to recruit from the worlds BEST talent – which pitch would you want to make.
“you’ll be part of a team maintaining and incrementally improving a code base that’s been successful for many years…”
OR
“you’ll have a chance to invent and implement brand new concepts – driving new capabilities that the industry has never before seen?”
Plenty of coders will apply for both gigs.
But I suspect the best of the best will hope like heck they can get a slot on the latter team.
FWIW
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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[Clint Wardlow] “Hardware is what brings in the majority of its cash. In a way this could work to the advantage of software development because said software does not have to meet the profit margin of a software-only company. It is subsidized by hardware sales. In a way it gives software developers more freedom in taking big risky steps.”
I agree with you Clint. Apple, as far as revenue is concerned, is a hardware company. Their software and services are designed to make their computers and iDevices more appealing to customers. For example, they are more than happy to let people run Windows on a Mac but heaven forbid you want to run OS X on non-Apple hardware. iTunes and Safari didn’t become available for Windows users until the iPod went cross platform and the release of the iPhone, respectively (Safari used to be required for testing early iOS apps).
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[Bill Davis] “Yep.
If you wanted to recruit from the worlds BEST talent – which pitch would you want to make. “
bill, for the entirety of pro-apps, including FCPX, compressor, motion and logic, via philip hodgetts literally shouting it at last years pre-nab:
there are twenty guys.it’s not an exclusive waiting list. It’s a vestigial dead end in apple.
It actually took them a year to make a library container. An entire year.
[Bill Davis] ” driving new capabilities that the industry has never before seen?””
that’s all done. there is no more new FCPX. It’s Pages now. What you’ve got here is exactly what you are ever going to get.
pray they don’t lobotomise the deal further.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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It had certainly been my contention that like OSX, FCP “X” was the brand under which the decade of Final Cut Pro development would happen. The open question for the last year had very much been whether 10.1 would be a paid upgrade or not. And while 10.1 itself was not as massive an update as many had figured, all the features added from 10.0.1 to 10.1 arguably supersede any single Legacy update. Adobe has likewise dropped the “one massive update a year” model, since they no longer need to drive upgrades with subscribers- perhaps Apple sees it the same way.
With 10.1 being free, and if we take the OP’s quote from the Apple rep at face value, then conceivably 10.1.2 thru 10.9.9 could be free to anyone who purchases X. As others have mentioned, Apple’s “subscription” is it’s hardware- on which it makes the best margins in the industry, and thru which it can keep users in it’s ecosystem (and more prone to buy iPads, iPhones, etc…) In the near term, I don’t see Apple giving away FCP X like they do iLife and iWork apps, but keeping the price the most competitive of the big 3.
Of course, they could stop at any point along the way, say 10.3.4 in a couple years, and release FCP XI as a paid update.
But I think we have a good few years on the FCPX gravy train before that, I think.
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