Where was Apple in 1999?

[Chris Kenny]

[Steven Gonzales] “There was no Mac Pro in 1999. There was Blue and White G3, cpu PowerPc family.”

Which is worth commenting on, in the context of the “Apple is abandoning pros” meme. Apple’s towers today are far more high-end, as compared with mainstream computers, than Apple’s towers were in 1999. In fact, Apple’s towers were mainstream computers in 1999 (B&W G3 towers started at $1599, which was an entirely mainstream price point in those days), whereas now the iMac is Apple’s mainstream desktop, and Apple has an entire hardware line above it pretty much exclusively for professional content creators.

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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.

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[Tim Wilson]

[Dave LaRonde] “[TImothy Auld] “How much do they owe to what they are now to Final Cut Pro?”

Does this implied calculation include iPods, iPhones, iPads and Macbooks or exclude them?”

Bingo.

[Chris Kenny] “Which is worth commenting on, in the context of the “Apple is abandoning pros” meme….”

The first time we heard the “abandoning pros” meme here at the COW was around 2002, when we heard “Apple cares more about iPods than Mac Pros,” because it was already becoming clear that this was going to make Apple more money than computers possibly could. In these days of iDevices out the wazoo, the fear struck in the hearts of creative pros by iPods seems almost quaint.

The meme resurfaced again when Apple dropped Computer from their name, which by that time, was both redundant and irrelevant anyway.

But it certainly speaks to what I think is partly implied in the thread title…or at least in some of the replies…which is, hey, we had something to do with Apple’s growth since then, so why abandon us after all these years?

I don’t see it that way at all. Apple has made products and technologies that pros like enough to build our businesses on — I owned a Mac-only video production company for a dozen years — but we should consider those “collateral benefits.” Satisfying our needs was never exactly the point.

That is, I doubt that Apple has made choices based on market needs, as much as the opportunities a market represents for Apple.

Market needs might provide some guidance, but by and large, Apple doesn’t respond to markets. Apple moves as it will, and expects markets to respond favorably.

Good for Apple. I don’t mean this to sound cynical on my part or Apple’s part in any way. We should all be so successful with our goals.

So no, I see no evidence that we’ve played a meaningful role in Apple’s growth since 1999, except to the extent that we have paid Apple to do things Apple’s way.

Standard disclaimers and disclosures: Every company in this market whose name starts with the letter A, including Anthro, ARRI and ASSIMILIATE, has spent a lot of money advertising with Creative COW. I speak for myself and the voices in my head only.