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Is the blindness that Apple showed in the FCPX release a portent of Apple’s future?
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[Ronald Lindeboom] “Some of the largest and most trusted names in home electronics, computers, hard drives, etc. — onetime leaders at the top of their respective stacks are now gone, or survive as nameplates only, tacked on to other people’s products for the sake of milking past goodwill. RCA, Zenith, Connor, Magnavox, Sylvania, Packard Bell, Compaq, Seagate, Quantum and many others, are gone — though someone may have picked up the rights to the name at a fire sale somewhere.
Being the leader doesn’t save anyone. It merely gives one the opportunity for survival. But it’s never guaranteed.”
Ron,
Very well said.
Let me throw in Ampex. Not only were they a leader, but they invented almost every important device that got us to where we are today. And if they didn’t invent it, they built it. You couldn’t go in a station or post facility that wasn’t all Ampex or RCA gear. Until Sony came along in the mid to late 70’s. About the only thing RCA built, that Ampex didn’t was transmitters.
This is a partial list of Ampex key inventions and developments.
First (radio) show to be tape delayed 1948
First data instrumentation recorder 1950
First multi-track audio recorder 1954
First practical video tape recorder 1956
First to use helical scan video recording 1961
First frame accurate tape editor 1963
First high band color VTR 1964
First portable VTR 1967
First video slo-mo system 1967
First robotic spot playback system 1970
First 1″ C format VTR, first VTR to do slo-mo 1976
First practical electronic still store 1977
First video paint system 1978
First digital real time video special FX unit to do rotation and perspective 1981
First digital (composite) video recorder 1988
First digital post production system with image compression 1992And where are they now? In 2008 Ampex received an Emmy for lifetime achievement, they also filed chapter 11 that year. The only place you will see their gear is in someones collection, or museum. No one lasts forever.
Yes, I’m fan, and I was lucky enough to work for them for a while.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed…“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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The Seagate of today is — at least according to the #1 NY Times best-selling book ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma’ by Clayton M. Christensen — is not the same Seagate that people think of. It has fought, lost, been bought, had its name assumed and is a name people recognize and so like Quantum, is in use. There is good will associated with the name.
It is much like NewBay buying Millimeter Magazine. Does it exist? yes, but not really. The people are gone and the name is there, but the product is not the Millimeter that people knew over the years.
It’s like buying an RCA or a Zenith television, is it RCA or Zenith? No, those companies are gone but their nameplates live on.
According to what I remember reading in The Innovator’s Dilemma, nearly every one of the major drive companies of the last 30 years or so are gone. But many of them live on in name.
It’s a little off topic but I remember my Dad asking me years ago to buy an American television when I was looking for a new one. So I asked him if he’d like me to buy the Mitsubishi (which was then) built in Santa Ana, California, or the RCA that was built in Japan.
Often there is more going on than many corporate nameplate suggests.
Best regards,
Ronald Lindeboom
CEO, Creative COW LLC
Publisher, Creative COW MagazineCreativity is a process wherein the student and the teacher are located in the same individual.
“Incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm.” – Woody Allen
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[TS] FCP has 2 million users and has always cost at least $1000. Do the basic math.
I appreciate your thoughtful assistance, but I don’t think I said that pre-FCPX versions of FCP cost less than $1000. And, I apologize that I haven’t counted how many copies of the pre-FCPX versions of FCP Apple has sold as you obviously have, but you seemed to miss the point and hone in on a vague generalization … or, perhaps you really are suggesting that Apple sold more copies of the pre-FCPX versions of FCP than it does iPods, iPhones, iPads, etc. … individually or combined, you choose.
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I have to agree with you, sorry to say. Like the iCrap product name, maybe you should see if the domain name is available. We can all buy iCrap at the CrappStore!
Seriously, though, I don’t think there will be a Mac Pro in 3 years, just like you said. Xserve gone, rack mounted Mac Pros? Lots of other warning signs like many others have posted…
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Its not that getting rid of Pro Apps is bad, I mean nothing last forever. Its just sad to see that apple is continuing down this path. Shying away from Towers and Software into TVs and on the go devices.
I wear many hats.
http://www.gregburkepost.com -
I have to say, the one thing that is getting left out of this discussion is the blatant bullocks Apple pulled on the pros with this App. Backsliding ads er…I mean…”pro” write ups with titles like “Apple didn’t forget the pros” in a blatant misinformation campaign during superlies er…sorry again, “supermeet”…
They may have left some products in the dirt in their recent past, but they have never propelled products under patented names that I can recall this absurdly and this disingenuously…
Trust was shaken…and that has the potential (and has) to cause some real long term damage in my opinion…the fanboi’s will defend them till the bitter end…but you can only sustain the brand you created so long as you maintain it….
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Chris, I appreciate your thoughtful reply and seeking commonality … I don’t necessarily disagree with your stated perspective at all … I just don’t think Apple sees the product release as having been mishandled or that it did anything other than exactly what it set out to do … capture the largest market share possible … just of a different market than you and I would have preferred.
Just to clarify, I never said that I think “FCPX is perfect and well focused” … the point I’m trying to make is that I think how that question is answered depends on for whom one asks whether it is perfect and at whom one asks whether it is well-focused? It seems to me that Apple wouldn’t have released it had they not thought it was perfect for and well-focused at exactly the market they were aiming at … and they may very well be right about that. The issue for you and I is just that they clearly weren’t aiming at our market.
I absolutely agree that the release and everything leading up to it was grossly mishandled, but that’s from my perspective as a professional editor who partially relies on FCP to earn a living. It seems the perspective of the target market will be that it was handled perfectly … arguably, what may likely become the best consumer-level video editing software on the market, cheap, immediately downloadable and easy to use.
As far as the valid points of “Why not both? Or, at least, why not ease out of the Pro market in a less passive/aggressive fashion?”, I obviously can’t answer for Apple so I’ll give my opinion as to the answers to those questions. As mentioned in my initial post, both costs money … lots of it … “major recurring R&D investment” for a pro product versus relatively little for consumer products. As far as the “less passive/aggressive” part, that’s just not the Apple/Jobs style … has no one ever noticed until now the arrogant, passive/aggressive, when-we-want-your-opinion, we’ll-give-it-to-you approach to everything that has always defined Apple’s business practices? If not, perhaps take another look at Ron Brinkmann’s comments and how he developed his opinions of what is happening now.
I first dabbled with FCP in its first version however many years ago as I transitioned from various NLEs that were far more established at that time (most of which are also gone now) so I don’t need to go back and read the leaks again to understand your points. I’m not saying that battling factions within Apple don’t exist … just that I think that was not at all the main factor that brought FCP to where it stands now. In other words, would anyone really suggest that Steve Jobs just didn’t know what FCP was being transformed into every step of the way and was somehow powerless to make it what he wants it to be? Perhaps it had to have “a few really great pro features” for two reasons: to somewhat mitigate the backlash from the pro community and because what are now considered “pro features” are very likely to be commonplace consumer features 5 years from now.
With that all said, I’m very sorry if I’ve offended anyone … I am only here to gather information and opinions from others and share my own … not to engage in conflicts about things over which I have zero control. My opinion is that I simply don’t believe that Apple made FCP into FCPX by accident (or QTP into QTX, for that matter) and that I don’t have to agree with the rationale in order to understand it … I actually regard what Apple appears to be doing as very similar to a classic bait & switch con tactic … only on a massive scale never seen before … applied to an entire industry.
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The real disappointment for me was the NAB roll out of FCPX. How could they possibly push all other Super Meet presenters out and ‘introduce’ a NON-BROADCAST product? Then dodge broadcast specific questions with the response ‘STAY TUNED’ when they KNEW the answer.
That’s not avoiding the question…. that is LYING.
Can you imagine how embarrassing it was for those presenters to go on stage?
To me there is no question Apple has abandoned the broadcast professional market.
It was a fun ride while it lasted.
MacPro 2.93 Quad
FCP7
Sony Z-1
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[Jamie Franklin] “I have to say, the one thing that is getting left out of this discussion is the blatant bullocks Apple pulled on the pros with this App”
You’re absolutely right Jamie … but it was only left out thus far because I was still writing the last paragraph of my last reply.
And, you’re absolutely right that the FanBoy’s will defend to the end … I work with quite a few of them so I know it to be definitively true and also very sad that so many pledge blind loyalty with no reciprocity whatsoever … it’s very cult-like. Perhaps recent events explain why so much time/money/effort was spent nurturing a large crop of FanBoy’s … because they’re the only target market now and those of us who make tool decisions based on merit are no longer needed.
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You might have also left it out because there is a 50,000 response thread below you about ever trusting apple again…
I’ll scroll faster next time
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