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OT: Apple pulls out of NAB
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It’s absolutely ridiculous to think Apple would sell it off. Believe me, they’ve got all kinds of wet dreams for future production tools. Wait until they start trying to replace mice with multitouch. They probably have concepts for editing systems like in “Minority Report”.
Sean
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Is there a prize for the longest thread?
When you think about the history of Apple Computers these have to be the golden years. I don’t think macs ever been more popular or had as big a market share. To think Apple would jeopardize this success with their line of computers to pursue a short term volatile market like cell phones and ipods seems unlikely. Where will iphones and ipods be in 5 years?
Well they say everything has a price and what’s good for the shareholders is good for the corporation but I think if Apple sells off their pro apps they may as well go for the gusto and sell it all because that could be the final result anyway if they just sell the SW. If they do sell they should get a lot of cash for it and I hope they give us all time to purchase our last mac work station with the latest version of FCS to carry us for the next 2 or 3 years.
“everything is broken” ……1st. coined by Esther Philips I believe.
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[Rennie Klymyk] “When you think about the history of Apple Computers these have to be the golden years. I don’t think macs ever been more popular or had as big a market share.
THIS is why I think it’s so likely that Apple will sell Pro Apps….and even if they don’t, they should. 🙂
They’re not Apple COMPUTER anymore. They’ve dropped the word “Computer” from their name.
Apple’s most dominant market share was with the Apple II. Since the introduction of the Mac, their market share has been a steady march down…until the last couple of years of course.
The thing to remember is that Pro Apps users like us account for a tiny number of overall Mac users. The last number I can find for Mac users was in 1997 (!!!), and it was 20,000,000. I think that number has easily tripled, if not more, even if the market share numbers were still down – which they’re not – because the market as a whole has grown so much.
The thing is, even if I personally owned the Pro Apps, Apple will still nothing but Macs to Pro Apps customers. 🙂 Who owns the Pro Apps has precisely zero effect on the sales of Mac computers.
Avid users buy tons of Macs, and established the dominance of Macs in Hollywood long before Apple bought Final Cut from Macromedia, and continues to be the app of choice there. (How many Oscar nominated films used Avid products? All of them, even No Country.) And before that, Adobe and Quark had more to do with Apple’s acceptance in desktop publishing than Apple itself.
But as far as applications go, the most popular Mac apps have been those from Microsoft (yes, Office sells more than Photoshop) and Adobe….
…until iTunes, thanks to iPods and iPhones.
<1>To think Apple would jeopardize this success with their line of computers to pursue a short term volatile market like cell phones and ipods seems unlikely. Where will iphones and ipods be in 5 years?”
They’ll be anywhere that Apple wants them to be. These are markets that Apple has changed far more than computers (where they’ve certainly been the prime mover), but they own the portable player business lock stock and barrel. Ditto the market for smart phones.
Portable music isn’t going anywhere. Neither are phones. Apple has plenty of room to grow in both markets.
That said, even though they’ve dropped “Computer” from their name, Apple sells plenty of computers. More iMacs than Mac Pros, and more MacBooks than MacBook pros.
This is underscored by Apple’s NAB announcement said that they’re putting their emphasis on Mac stores as sales venues…and those are dominated by iPods and consumer-ish computers.
All of which is why I still think that Apple selling the Pro Apps will be the best thing for Pro Appls folks. They’re increasingly a distraction from Apple’s core business, and if Thomson is the buyer, they’ll be part of a hardcore broadcast business that desperately needs content creation tools. They’ll dedicate far more resources to it than Apple will.
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[David Roth Weiss] ” So, maybe Tim really knows something??? I certainly hope he’s just speculating”
I am, I am….but I have access to more tea leaves than many folks do.
And don’t forget, I see the purchase as great, great news for the Pro Apps. Even if this rumor turns out NOT to be true, it SHOULD be true.
The Pro Apps will be safest with a pro broadcast company, who’s motivated to add pro features fare more quickly…and far more of them…with far more software and hardware tools to support them…than are useful to Apple…whose core business is not pro apps, and is less so now than ever….especially now that they’ve dropped the word “Computer” from their name.
The main tea-leaf isn’t a tea-leaf. Apple’s NAB non-announcement (a short sentence or two in the industry’s least read and least significant publication) said explicitly that they’re focusing their sales efforts on Apple stores. Been in one lately? 🙂
Pro Apps are best off with a company who needs pros to survive. Apple has prospered without them. GVT is dead without video pros, far more so than Avid.
I don’t believe that Apple is the best company to own the pro apps, because I believe that pro video is far less a growth business for them as every single other part of the portfolio.
And I certainly believe that, if all this is true, that every key member of the pro apps team will be heartily welcomed to GVT, where they’ll have more support and more resources at their disposal than ever before.
Pro Apps users deserve someone better aligned with their goals than Apple is. We’re going to find out in a few weeks if I’m as big an idiot as usual…but I hope the rumors are true.
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Eric, David, we think you’re exactly right. My other posts on the thread are my own opinion, and don’t represent those of the Cow….which is why none of them had my sig.
THIS one represents the Cow’s official position, that NAB is dying…certainly less and less significant with every year…and that Apple is skipping a booth for the exact same reason Avid did — it just doesn’t make sense anymore.
Look! My sig!!
Tim Wilson, Creative Cow
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Many distributors at the last SMPTE show in Australia were saying that they were seriously doubting the future of trade shows.
Most people who turn up know everything already from the net and so launching something has become unnecessary. If Apple have chosen to skip NAB, I would think the most obvious reason is that trade shows take time and resources away from the product to sell something that sells itself on the net now.
I have enjoyed Henny Penny’s falling sky in this thread though.
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[Tim Wilson] “their market share has been a steady march down…until the last couple of years of course. “
I think the imac is credited as saving them from extinction. Then the G3 with firewire being released with fcp 1 at a time when sony gave us the VX1000 was a timely happening.
[Tim Wilson] “The thing is, even if I personally owned the Pro Apps, Apple will still nothing but Macs to Pro Apps customers. 🙂 Who owns the Pro Apps has precisely zero effect on the sales of Mac computers.”
This could change if FCP became windows compatible. We could all be driving Volkswagons.
I have to think every time a new client leaves my edit studio they look at macs with a little more interest the next time they’re in the computer store. It’s all accumulative advertising for Apple in a way.
[Tim Wilson] “Avid users buy tons of Macs, and established the dominance of Macs in Hollywood long before Apple bought Final Cut from Macromedia”
It seems to me around 1998 when windows NT enabled the basic pc to edit video avid and others announced migration to NT and there was a period where mac was out in the cold, until the imac and the consumer market revived them. FCP saved their butt (for me anyway)
[Tim Wilson] “All of which is why I still think that Apple selling the Pro Apps will be the best thing for Pro Appls folks. They’re increasingly a distraction from Apple’s core business, and if Thomson is the buyer, they’ll be part of a hardcore broadcast business that desperately needs content creation tools. They’ll dedicate far more resources to it than Apple will. “
What scares me is FCS could become that “extreme” app under GVT’s hands and be priced Discreetly. Color would not have been the freebie but another $25,000.00 add on. Everyone outside of Hollywood will be using final cut express.
“everything is broken” ……1st. coined by Esther Philips I believe.
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[Martin Baker] “FCP’s main competitor isn’t Avid anymore. It’s Adobe.”
Now Apple buying Adobe – that’s a rumor that’s been around a loooooooooong time!
-Simmie
1 MacPro – Kona 3
2 G5 – Kona LH
2 G4s – Cinewave
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I have to disagree Tim, I can’t see the sale of Pro-Apps being a good thing at all and I hope you are wrong. In fact I’m in the middle of a flurry of e-mails to see if I can get an official denial out of Apple!
Steve Connor
Adrenalin TelevisionHave you tried “Search Posts”? Enlightenment may be there.
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[Steve Connor] “In fact I’m in the middle of a flurry of e-mails to see if I can get an official denial out of Apple!”
Good luck there. I think “No Comment” is the best you’re going to get there, at least officially. You know Apple as well as I do. They announce something officially when they are good and ready to announce it.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
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