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OT: Apple pulls out of NAB
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We are running a 3rd party’s (non-Thomson) newsroom ingest/editing/playback system that uses Edius as it’s editing software. Every day I hear someone ask why they didn’t go FCP or Avid.
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First, I think folks missed the point of the Canopus purchase. Edius is moderatly interesting, but that’s all. They took it because it came for free.
Take a look at the entire Canopus product line, and you’ll see that if Thomson didn’t buy them, Grass Valley would have. (Ooops.) Canopus’s long suit has always been transcoding, scan converters, video capture to archive, realtime MPEG, distribution, playout servers….
….all things that Thomson was lacking….and all the things that FCP has lacked in order to be even POTENTIALLY a player in heavy iron broadcast, sports, news, etc.
Which is why the purchase by Thomson is the only story that makes sense. It provides the REAL content front end that Edius was never meant to be…although Edius is still interesting in ways that are too far off topic even for this thread.
The point is that the combination of Canopus and Pro Apps gives Thomson a breadth that finally challenges Avid in ways that FCP never could.
(Not that there aren’t plenty of OTHER ways that FCP has come after Avid from day one. Just not in any of Avid’s longest suits.)
I’ve been holding back the rumor for a while because I wasn’t sure it was worth repeating…yet…and seems now that it is.
Word has been bouncing around for a while that the purchase was maybe even completed a few months back, for the price of $400 million. The announcement will come in April, goes the story.
This is one of those deals where I have this from 3 separate sources, but for all I know, they’re hearing it from the same place in sequence…which means 1 source. But all of them (or the one) are highly credible to me.
Doesn’t mean any of this is true of course. But we’ll find out soon enough.
Final note about Final Cut in heavy iron broadcast: Mac has never, and I mean EVER, had a prayer of meaningful participation in anything but content creation, well outside the mainstream. That could change very quickly indeed….
…or Thomson could return Final Cut to its original cross-platform roots at Macromedia.
Media 100 wanted to buy Final Cut to run it as a Windows-only front-end for their now discontinued 844/x. The first Macromedia Final Cut demo most of us saw in 1998 was on Windows. And the alpha disk I got was cross platform. (See below.)
FWIW, I can’t imagine that Thomson would go any further than cross-platforming. Even if it was willing to do without the money that Mac users provide, leaving Mac would let Avid off the mat.
Thomson has no interest in letting Avid off the mat. This is full-contact competition.
So I say FCP stays on Mac until the sun goes nova, just that it would be interesting to add Windows back into the mix where it was in the beginning. I can’t imagine that the code’s not still there. It sure doesn’t seem to me that FCP has made any architectural changes from when it was at Macromedia, just formats and frame rates. Lord knows Pro Res for Win would be a snap.
Even if the Thomson rumor turns out not to be true, it SHOULD be true. 🙂 Seriously, it’s the only move that makes any sense at all for either Apple or Thomson.
Besides, I hope its true so I can tell you the rest of the story. 🙂
Love,
Tim Wilson
Creative COWPS. Here’s the picture of my Alpha 5 disk, if you haven’t seen it before.
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[Craig Seeman] ““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. “
While this is all true there seems to be a perception that the pro apps are a lost leader to bolster hardware sales. While I am not an economist I still contend that the apps are themselves profitable. Consider the cost of each component in a mac pro including the case, design of the architecture and assembly and distribution. Compare that to the cost of producing 8 LBs. of paperbacks and 1/2 dozen dvd’s that sell for $500.00 (FCS upgrade) and multiply by a million = 500 million. (I personally have spent about $4500.00 on FCP related SW and upgrades from Apple since 2000). The only real expense for software is R&D really, whereas to build a computer a lot of money is spent on buying individual components that go into it and making the assembly line as well as R&D.
This is a rough estimate of the money involved. Although I personally have spent about $4500.00 on FCP related SW and upgrades from Apple since 2000 and another $14,000.00 on hardware (strictly Apple items and I consider myself a bit of a scrooge). That adds up to $18,500.00 for 1 of those 1,000,000 FCP seats that exist in the world. And yes the FCP SW sold me on the hardware and I never said it doesn’t. I’m just saying I think there is reasonable profit in the software itself IMHO.
It seems to me Adobe started the SW bundle scheme which has helped revive Premier and it would seem Apple had to follow suit. In doing so the cost of these apps has fallen hard and no doubt has eaten into the profit margin. Still there is tremendous potential to profit from the apps given the low cost of physically producing it and the high volume of licenses sold.
“everything is broken” ……1st. coined by Esther Philips I believe.
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First, I think folks missed the point of the Canopus purchase. Edius is moderatly interesting, but that’s all. They took it because it came for free.
Maybe so, but Thomson/GVG were at that time under contract to provide a craft editing solution to a relatively big client, something they’d failed to come up with and it was causing them some amount of grief … Edius swiftly became that craft edit solution. Whilst it’s not likely the major reason for acquisition of Canopus, it almost certainly played a part in the decision.
Other than that I’m in complete agreement with you Tim,, and thanks for the long and interesting post … something to mull over while we go about the business of our business today!
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[Andy Mees] “Maybe so, but Thomson/GVG were at that time under contract to provide a craft editing solution to a relatively big client, something they’d failed to come up with and it was causing them some amount of grief .”
I remember Grass Valley’s failed attempt to sell a higher priced version of Media 100.
Will be interesting to see what plays out. I would welcome a cross-platform version of Studio to grow the user base even further.
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! -
[Tim Wilson] ” It sure doesn’t seem to me that FCP has made any architectural changes from when it was at Macromedia, just formats and frame rates. “
The one significant change I recall was moving to YUV rendering from RGB around FCP 2.
Thanks for posting the photo of the macromedia disc! I recently watched a program on an auction of Johnny Cash memorabilia in which items went for astronomical amounts. I wonder what you could fetch with your disc on ebay! 🙂
“everything is broken” ……1st. coined by Esther Philips I believe.
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[Scott Thomas] “To me, this sounds like a rumor circulated by Avid to make themselves appear to be a more sound choice.
“Bingo!
Mark
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It’s just typical in this industry. It’s probably the same in every other industry. Last year I was helping to shop around for a production switcher. I go to the Sony booth and they have a new switcher. Real nice, and they tell me that Grass Valley’s Kalypso will be EOL soon. I then go to the Grass both and ask about the EOL status of the Kalypso. They want to know who told me that. I already knew it was the same rumor from the year before, but it’s still good to get the reaction.
That’s one of the nice things about NAB. You can confront people and ask questions that don’t have an answer on the website or ad-slick. If you come prepared, you can properly set your BS detector and get good information. 🙂
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Even putting aside the cultural reasons why any sale is as likely as Britney becoming a nun, a sale to Thomson would be a terrible idea. Totally inappropriate fit for the vast majority of the FCP userbase.
FCP’s main competitor isn’t Avid anymore. It’s Adobe.
Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
Unique plug-ins and tools for Apple Pro Apps
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Avid2FCP
For Avid editors learning FCP -
I have recently bought FPC and thus a MacPro. FPC the main reason for buying the MacPro. I come from Pc-world and have a 4 core Pc but not the program I wanted. Now I wake up to this.
A friend of mine has logic and when I told him about this rumor he told me that the new logic just came a few moths a go and he can´t belive this can be more than rumors. But now he is worried too. Apple sold me a MacPro because of FPC and my logic friend has a MacPro because of logic. This does not make sense since I in the future would buy a MacBookPro because of FPC. Apple has sold me one pro computer and if nothing bad happens, a pro notebook. Two computers for one program.
Is this really happening and must we wait until April to know?Carl
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