My take on FCPX or Not

[John Christie]

[Walter Soyka] “I rely on both Macs (I’ve got 7) and PCs (I’ve got 3) in my shop, but the FCPX-or-not debate has made me realize that I’m now far more dependent on Adobe and Maxon (both cross-platform) than I am on Apple. I’m currently budgeting a small render farm, and I had always planned on going with Macs for operational simplicity. I’ve reversed course. I can get significantly more power for the same cost with PCs. That means I’m also considering PCs the next time I refresh my workstations (within a year).”

I agree, Walter. If you remove Final Cut Pro from the editing mix, all the either programs are cross-platform. I have 20 plus suites to think about upgrading in the next few years. I don’t want to switch platforms, but it’s something I have to consider. If Apple starts losing the high end studio market, they’re going to lose a lot of their prestige in the market place. The perception that creative professionals use Macs has helped drive a lot of Mac sales.

Cheers

John

[Craig Seeman]

[Walter Soyka] ” a niche that is not satisfied with the single design that meets many needs”

They will if the price, power, flexibility is right. It still one meet everyone’s needs. Neither did FCP legacy. Hollywood and brodcast still has plenty of Avids even at FCP’s maturity. FCP still made its way into some broadcast and feature work. I think Apple’s new hardware would do the same assuming the third party support happens.

Just as there’s a MacMini Server model so would the new box be capable of it. Servers themselves are niche compared to the broader market. Apple can do it with the Mini because it’s the same box with a few parts swapped out. This new box would cover that range. The idea would be higher power but commodity components and a design that lends itself to Apple swapping in/out things for the niche.

Apple really has become the ultimate hardware commodity company. iPads are just about the least expensive tablets on the market at least relative to power. While Android has a bigger smartphone market share the iPhone specifically probably outsells any specific model Android phone. The MacBook went away as the MacBookAir, now with Thunderbolt, dropped in price radically and increased power and connectivity from its introduction.

What’s left is the market that needs more power and expandability than the iMac. If it were too small Apple wouldn’t even bother . . . and some say they won’t. I think they’re going to approach that problem differently by making a box that can fill a broader segment need than the MacPro could. In order for Thunderbolt to really be of value there has to be at least one Mac that will need to use that port. That’s what would attract developer support . . . and strong developer support leads to more Mac sales. It’s the only way I can see this being financially viable and desirable for Apple.

[Jamie Franklin]

FCPx is like the ’78 animated version of Lord of the Rings premiering after the Peter Jackson films…

[David Lawrence]

[Craig Seeman] “The idea would be higher power but commodity components and a design that lends itself to Apple swapping in/out things for the niche.”

All well and good, but if the OS driving the hardware is crippled for professional use, will it matter?

_______________________
David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl

[Craig Seeman]

[David Lawrence] “All well and good, but if the OS driving the hardware is crippled for professional use, will it matter?”

AV Foundation may be a good thing. Avid Media Composer has been updated for Lion so it seems the OS isn’t standing in the way.

I’m not sure if the UI will eventually get in the way. So far I don’t think so.

[David Lawrence]

[Craig Seeman] “AV Foundation may be a good thing. Avid Media Composer has been updated for Lion so it seems the OS isn’t standing in the way.

I’m not sure if the UI will eventually get in the way. So far I don’t think so.”

Agree about AV Foundation, lots of good stuff under the hood. Also true that Avid and other companies are updating now. I’m thinking more about the long term. I started a thread here about a pro hardware expert’s concerns about the OS:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/14679

UI is already getting in the way for many people switching to Lion. Rght now Apple seems more confused about UI than I’ve ever seen before. I mean they literally don’t even know which way is up! At least they give an option to turn “natural” scrolling off, but the overall direction and thinking behind it and many other aspects of Lion really makes me wonder about their priorities.

_______________________
David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl

[Craig Seeman]

So far the only problem I have with Lion is that with gesture based control it’s very easy to make mistakes such as needing a two finger swipe and accidentally making contact with the third finger. Just as I’m less fond of keyboard commands the more modifiers keys they need, I don’t like having to use too many or accidentally using to many fingers on a gesture. I’m not sure if there’s a graceful UI answer for either given the number of things one needs to do to differentiate commands. My answer would be more function keys. 🙂

[David Lawrence]

[Craig Seeman] “My answer would be more function keys. :-)”

Function keys work for me!

So are you using Lion in production? Still too early for me.

_______________________
David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl

[Robert Brown]

I put Lion on my MBP as Snow Leopard was having issues and I didn’t want to bother with a re-install. Although my stability issues did improve , I’d have to agree with a lot of that link you posted where things that were really nice are not so nice anymore. Mail is worse, they got rid of color coding in Finder, and auto fill is IMO much worse than to was. Other than the things I don’t like it seems about the same. I have no idea really of what was changed “under the hood”. At this point I think I’ll stick with 10.6.8 on my big system for as long as possible.

Robert Brown
Editor/VFX/Colorist – FCP, Smoke, Quantel Pablo, After Effects, 3DS MAX, Premiere Pro

https://vimeo.com/user3987510/videos

[Chris Harlan]

[Robert Brown] “At this point I think I’ll stick with 10.6.8 on my big system for as long as possible.
“

That’s where my head is at, as well.