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OT: Apple pulls out of NAB
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[George Loch] “Then of course, there is Frank’s take on this. If this turns out to be true, Apple will once again shake up the industry…just not in the same way :)”
Well that is an interesting take, hadn’t heard that one. Thompson has been around a long time. Wonder if the entire package would just go back to Windows since it started there anyway.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
[Jerry Hofmann] “Gotta compare weight loss with Walter at least! Your recent pics look great Wally. I’ve taken off a ton and still am… we’ll be soooo cute!”
Thanks Jerry! About 50lbs and holding so far. I do feel much better.
I’m on the fence right now about attending, though I’m scheduled to be in three different booths so far. So I probably will just end up coming out if for no other reason than to see your smiling face.
Who knows, maybe we’ll be celebrating the sale of ProApps to another company and Final Cut will finally become platform independent.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
From Frank’s article:
“For Apple, the overwhelming bulk of its sales are $1,300 boxes of software?”
That people are running on ????
Apple sells ProApps because each one needs a box usually running from $2800 to $4500. Add a few more BTO options and monitors and that can from $4000 to $6000 or MORE! Maybe some of the bigger shops are buying Xserves too at $3000 and up.
Apple CONTROLS the whole experience from quality to marketing, by CONTROLLING the SOFTWARE.
Now maybe Frank’s arguing Apple is going to drop their whole MacPro market along with the Cinema Displays that go with the them. Maybe that’ll impact MacBookPro too.
If they sell the software to somebody else they lose control and it can seriously hurt their desktop sales if FCS is taken in a different direction by another developer.
If they can’t control FCS they risk major upper end hardware losses. Remember FC move accelerated when Avid announced they were stopping Apple support. That’s because Apple didn’t CONTROL Avid. Apple didn’t CONTROL Adobe when Premiere was a crash factory on the Mac.
The only way Apple would sell FCS would be if they were ready to dump out of that end of the hardware market too. Maybe Frank believes Apple is going to be just an iPod, iPhone, iMac, MacBook company.
Apple sells FCS, Shake (and whatever replaces it), FC Server (when that happens) at low prices because they all lead to big hardware purchases. In fact that software also accelerates the CPU upgrades. Even if one were to “pirate” the software (we know no one does that here) they have to buy the box.
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I hear what you are saying and I shared the same sentiments. However, it is quite possible that Apple IS planning to leave the pro market entirely. The implications of that make my head spin a bit.
-gl
Prologue Media
http://www.prologuemedia.com -
[Craig Seeman] “The only way Apple would sell FCS would be if they were ready to dump out of that end of the hardware market too. Maybe Frank believes Apple is going to be just an iPod, iPhone, iMac, MacBook company.”
And that’s entirely possible. Mac Pros are certainly not a consumer item. Gamers are not buying them. So you have pro users and university professors making super computer clusters. How large is that market compared to the consumer market purchasing MacBooks, MacBook Pros, Mac Minis, iMacs, iPhones, iPods and the like. Overall how much money do the high end machines bring in vs. the rest of the market? Furthermore, how much does it cost to R&D the high end machines vs. the cost to R&D of the rest of the lineup? Is there enough profit for Apple to continue the high end machines?
I honestly have no idea what the sales figures / return on investment for all of these products are.
It’s certainly expensive to continue to develop the pro-apps for little return on investment from a price standpoint. Why in the world Apple would purchase a $25,000 piece of software and just give it away is still beyond me. It would be very hard for Apple to suddenly raise their prices on Studio because that would cause a revolt.
So if your return on investment for the ProApps and the Mac Pros just isn’t approaching the return for the rest of the consumer brand, then maybe you dump it all. I mean does Apple seriously expect their Retail Stores to become a front line for Final Cut Studio, Logic and Shake? That’s like Avid saying CompUSA will now be carrying their entire lineup and the friendly staff will be there to answer all your questions.
I think Frank brings up some very interesting points and quite honestly, if Apple no longer wants to be in the Pro Apps business, I hope they do sell the package off. Nothing worse for end users than a company that doesn’t want to develop a package any further so we get stuck with a product that becomes stale and eventually fades away.
Speaking of Shake, anyone hear anything about that in the past two years? Last I heard it was going to be replaced in 2008. Well, here we are in 2008 and Apple has pulled off the NAB show floor. Hmmm, no big announcements? No Shake replacement?
I’m not sure Thompson is the company to purchase the software, but it would be interesting to see who would purchase it and whether or not it gets ported to Windows. I would welcome that actually. Cross platform certainly hasn’t hurt After Effects, and I think Final Cut Pro could gain even more market share if it worked across both Windows and Mac platforms.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
[George Loch] “However, it is quite possible that Apple IS planning to leave the pro market entirely.”
Aren’t we all getting a little ahead of ourselves here? Relax. Don’t panic until you need to. At that point, switch to Premiere. It’s awesome, right? 🙂
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[walter biscardi] “it would be interesting to see who would purchase it and whether or not it gets ported to Windows.”
I would absolutely love to have the FCP package available on the PC. I love my Avid, but being able to run FCS2 on Windows? That would be amazing!
Michael.
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Jerry
[Jerry Hofmann] “50 dog and ponies with say, 2 guys and a mac will cost no where near the millions spent at NAB…. and likely could reach as many or more people… that is what apple is looking at…”
My problem is: 2 guys with a mac will not show me a SAN with XSAN and 10 FCP’s – or 50 FCP’s like they normally have at NAB. They can not show me the workflow that Final Cut Server promises.
I’m talking about the medium size post facility, or large production house that needs many FCP’s and slick workflow. That part of FCP’s market sells lots of FCPs and lots of Mac Pros.
That’s the market they will not target properly unless they have a large active demo system to show. That’s where both Avid and Apple are losing it.
Do you have any idea what a whammer Avid could give if they decide to come back to Nab, with no Apple in sight? They could turn the whole tide of negative sentiment around…
Regards
Francois -
People are extrapolating a lot of information from one missed trade show!
Apple aren’t stupid, Pro-apps sell Mac Pros, the margin on them is LARGE, and it makes them money, no question, so why would they sell?
Steve Connor
Adrenalin TelevisionHave you tried “Search Posts”? Enlightenment may be there.
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[walter biscardi] “It’s certainly expensive to continue to develop the pro-apps for little return on investment from a price standpoint. Why in the world Apple would purchase a $25,000 piece of software and just give it away is still beyond me.”
Exactly because Apple makes money on hardware not software. Software is used to sell hardware.
[walter biscardi] “So if your return on investment for the ProApps and the Mac Pros just isn’t approaching the return for the rest of the consumer brand, then maybe you dump it all.”
There’s common technology between iMacs and MacPros (and MacBooks/BookPros). MacPros do quite well for Apple if you’ve read their financials as posted on sites like MacWorld. Dump the Pro machines it will have have impact on the entire line.
[walter biscardi] “Speaking of Shake, anyone hear anything about that in the past two years? Last I heard it was going to be replaced in 2008. Well, here we are in 2008 and Apple has pulled off the NAB show floor. Hmmm, no big announcements? No Shake replacement? “
Nearly the ENTIRE FCS was developed initially OUTSIDE of Apple, FCP, LiveType, DVDStudioPro, Logic, Color. ALL came from someplace else. Motion I believe was Apple’s. Apple doesn’t have a history of developing their own beyond Motion and they did a GREAT job with Motion (which certainly helped sell more hardware CPU/GPUs as it needed the power). The Shake replacement will probably take a combination software/hardware solution and that whole package may NOT be ready yet.
Leaving NAB doesn’t mean Apple will stop marketing ProApps. It doesn’t mean they’re selling them. The hit on hardware sales would be SEVERE IMHO. It could well mean that Apple, the company that LOVES CONTROL (as I stated elsewhere) is waiting for a CONTROLLED marketing plan as Blu-ray support is added, as the Shake replacement is added.
[walter biscardi] “but it would be interesting to see who would purchase it and whether or not it gets ported to Windows.”
And you’ve just explained why APPLE WON’T SELL. Porting to Windows would really help Apple’s hardware sales. This is EXACTLY why Apple/FCP happened in the first place (remember Avid dropping Apple support). Again the ONLY way Apple would sell ProApps would be in conjunction to dropping Pro hardware sales and given that the entire line from MacBooks, iMacs, MacPros use much common technology that makes no sense. MILLIONS of FCP users = Millions of CPUs being sold. Software updates FORCE hardware upgrades (new CPU purchases).
Hey, I think tradeshows like NAB are important and I think Apple is making a mistake by pulling out but if Apple knows anything they KNOW Marketing and if I’d suspect ANYTHING I’d suspect a NEW marketing approach to the Pro user.
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