I think it’s a combination of what you’re both saying. In my market (the Bay Area), freelancers are the lifeblood of the industry.
In addition to what you’re both stating, I think another factor at play is the thought that by keeping with Apple hardware the majority of the freelance community remains unaffected since Apple hardware has been entrenched in post production for so many years.
In the past year I’ve worked for multiple in-house agencies that have had to decide what upgrade path to take. Several companies here are getting the last few drops of service out of the trashcan macs and then moving onto the new imac pros.
Silicon Valley companies tend not to be concerned with the added costs of the mac platform but more so than the larger budgets I think the main reason these upgrades are continuing on the Apple hardware is because of post managers not being fully aware of the many other possibilities available to them. Also, could the media servers that drive all of these edit suites also steer folks away from changing platforms?
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