[Herb Sevush]

[Chris Kenny] ” In fact, the Mac Pro is a pretty low-profile product for Apple these days — it’s not impossible there will be no advance announcement at all, and the new models will simply appear in the online store one day.”

And it’s also not impossible that they will discontinue the line completely, in fact I’d say 80-20 for discontinuance precisely because the MacPro line is so low profile. The MacPro currently sticks out like a sore thumb in Apple’s current line of consumer gadgets. The MacPro, like Legacy, is aimed at a market Apple no longer cares about. I don’t blame them, it’s just business, but a little clarity would be nice.

This is one of the real pleasures of dealing with a company that doesn’t communicate with it’s customers, anybody’s opinion is valid because “he who speaks does not know, he who knows does not speak.”

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Chris Kenny] “The Sandy Bridge E5 Xeons are new enough that Apple’s lack of a Mac Pro update doesn’t really mean anything either way yet. Especially since Intel sometimes formally “ships” a processor well before it’s actually available in quantities useful to OEMs.”

Given that HP announced they would be shipping the HP820 with the Sandy Bridge E5 Xeons at the end of May, and announced it the day the chips were formally announced by Intel, how is it that Apple, with their wonderful relationship to Intel, can’t get these same chips in quantity?

I very much hope your analysis is correct, I would buy one the first day, but my guess is it’s not going to happen, and since Apple won’t talk I’m probably going to have to commit my money elsewhere since I can’t wait for an illusion. Cloud computing is one thing, dream computing another.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Craig Seeman] “t’s the difference between an arm wrestle and a gun pointed to your business head.”

In other words Apple would do it if it could, it just isn’t strong enough. Got it.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Craig Seeman] “Apple leveraging their strength (real or perceived).”

So when Apple does it they are leveraging their strength. When Microsoft does it they are a monopoly strangling the industry. Got it.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Chris Kenny] “is it really necessary to specify that Microsoft is the industry’s traditional monopolist? They were legally convicted and everything.”

How internet explorer has oppressed me for the last 13 years I don’t quite see. I must be missing something.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Chris Kenny] “the personal computer industry has spent most of the last 13 years largely under the thumb of an oppressive monopoly.”

apple? microsoft? standard oil? OK, I give up. Who?

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Chris Kenny] “what I’m addressing with this argument is the notion that it was valid to draw significant conclusions about Apple’s long-term interest in high-end customers from the feature set of the initial release.”

Remember, this is about both the release of X and the simultaneous EOL of Legacy. From that launch I can only see 2 possibilities. Either they thought it wouldn’t piss off these high end customers, in which case they’re stupid; or they didn’t mind pissing them off because they’re not key to their vision of the market. In either case I think the conclusions were and are valid.

[Chris Kenny] “I think our hypothetical 35% (really if we’re exclusively talking about broadcast/post people it’s probably much less than that) are more vocal, but I think the weight of that mass of users on the other side counts for more in the long run.”

The 35% is your number: [Chris Kenny]At which point why should they have held it off of the market for an additional year (particularly with FCP 7 getting so long in the tooth) just to address the remaining 35%?

The 65% count for more only if your no longer interested in the high end. Kids go to film school to make movies, not to post cat videos on Youtube. Apple courted filmmakers for their influence, they obviously no longer care as much. I’m not saying it was a financial mistake, but I am saying they took their leadership role in that particular market and dumped it in the toilet. Believing it will come back might be a mistake. It might not.

[Chris Kenny] “Are you a hobbyist if you use FCP X to cut comedic web sorts you shoot with your friends? “

Yes

[Chris Kenny] “How about if you make money from ads on your site? Does it matter how much money?”

Not a hobbyist and it doesn’t matter how much you make, it’s the intent to make the money that counts.

[Chris Kenny] “how about if you work for a post facility in some technical capacity, but cut personal projects in FCP X on the side?”

If your a professional editor then personal projects are part of your craft. If your an IT guy cutting video at home your a hobbyist. If your an audio guy it would depend on what and why you were cutting – a vacation video = hobbyist, something that interests you and you see it as an extension of your work, then professional.

[Chris Kenny] “Say an individual with a day job that has nothing to do with filmmaking puts together a self-funded feature project, cuts it himself, gets into a festival, wins a prize and gets a distribution deal. Is this person still a hobbyist?”

No.

[Chris Kenny] “exactly when do they stop being a hobbyist?”

When it takes over their life.

Your a hobbyist if you don’t edit as part of your livelihood. Your an artist if your compulsed to edit for your own purposes, and it doesn’t matter if you make money or not. Your a professional if you edit for pay. I don’t find it vague at all.

[Chris Kenny] “There are no rules anymore.”

There are as many rules now as ever, you just might not know them.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Chris Kenny] “The logical conclusion is that FCP X is a) actually being pretty widely used (far more widely than Vegas ever was)”

Damming with faint praise. Vegas is an example of a new paradigm that never made a dent in the market.

[Chris Kenny] ” b) actually is a suitable solution for a lot of FCP 7 customers.”

Actually we don’t know what those numbers mean. We never did before. I never trusted things like Legacy had “2 million seats.” Where did that number come from? How many were upgrades, how many were abaondoned? What I am confident in is market awareness. FCP Legacy had plenty. FCPX has a curiosity factor, but in my small circle it doesn’t exist as a viable option. I know more people using Edius than using X. I am aware that I am not the center of the editing universe, but I put zero faith in any of the numbers quoted, till they define their terms and show how they arrived at them.

[Chris Kenny] “I think FCP X’s detractors might have to start acknowledging the possibility that Apple might have known some things about how people were using FCP that weren’t obvious to them.”

I never doubted that Apple knew the market they were aiming at, I simply concluded that it wasn’t me or mine.

[Chris Kenny] “I suspect the general impression conveyed by the numbers is correct) “10% of users export XML files, 5% export EDL files, 25% use multicam, 15% use broadcast monitoring — and given the overlap, we can leave all of these things out of our first version and still address 65% of the FCP 7 user base”

If true, and it well might be, then it was an incredibly stupid business decision to release X and EOL Legacy at the same moment. They managed to piss off the most vocal and influential 35% of their user base. Not all users are equal. They would have been better off pissing off the other 65%, who would fall in line anyhow, rather than the influential few. I don’t think they really liked the Conan segment, do you?

[Chris Kenny] “A car without headlights and breaks is useless to essentially everyone. FCP X turns out to have been useful to a large fraction of the FCP user base.”

Not in it’s first release. For Bill Davis, yes. But many other current X’ers couldn’t use it at first. I stand by my statement that the initial release was useless for a large portion of the pro user base, even if they liked the paradigm. This has changed with subsequent releases.

One of the big differences between Legacy and X is that Legacy was solely for the pro market. That doesn’t mean that X is not “pro” but it does mean that there are a lot of hobbyists that use it as well. That tends to skew arguments about relative strength in the pro market.

[Chris Kenny] “Apple has plugged the gaps pretty fast. “

Yes they have, much quicker than I believed they would.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

I’d sooner buy a hackintosh.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Bill Davis] “Nothing changes everything, because “everything is” unchangeable”

Nice post Bill

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf