[Marcus Moore]

Agreed. Just like with the current generation, I’ll expect you’ll be able to spend between $2,500 and close to $8,000 (if you were lazy about buying RAM from Apple)- especially if Apple releases 4K CinemaDisplays. Those things WILL NOT be cheap. Memories of the 30″CinemaDisplay which cost $2,600 at launch.

[Marcus Moore]

If I were you I’d return it. The last thing you’d want is to be kicking yourself a month from now when the new MacPro comes out and discover it’s not as expensive as has been “RUMORED”, and comes with all the modern, forward looking I/O and will probably be THE poster-child machine for FCPX.

And FCPX will be changing as well- how much we don’t know. But a big update is one the way around the same time. Buy FCPX now and you may have to buy it all over again in less than 2 months.

[Marcus Moore]

While I think there’s great synergy and there’ll be a wonderful performance boost to FCPX (or any beefy application) on the new MacPro- I continue to think people are making TOO much of the connection.

After all- a vast majority of people who would be running “10.1” will likely be doing it on anything else than a MacPro. Whether they don’t need that Horsepower, or it’s too expensive, or their work requires portability, or they’re still mid-cyle on hardware… for any and all of these reasons I’d be surprised if 5% of the FCPX user base was using a MacPro by this time next year.

IF Apple were to offer 10.1 for free- I think it would come from a PR perspective. It would be VERY weird. And it would be a one-time “please give us another go” release.

But that said I still doubt it.

[Marcus Moore]

Agreed. Word processing has already become commoditized by GoogleDocs. iWork as a valued added option for users. Microsoft Office as the monopoly software is the only looser here. And the longer Redmond lets it remain barred from mobile platforms, the more irrelevant it will become.

[Marcus Moore]

While I think we will see something mirroring the iWork on iOS apps relating to the Mac, I don’t think that we’ll see Apple commoditize FCPX as well.

Right now the game is for different tech companies to commoditize the primary revenue drivers for their competition.

Microsoft’s licensing of Windows to OEMs forced them to fight eachother for marketshare, driving the price of hardware down.

Amazon sells Kindle hardware at break-even or even a slight loss to drive traffic to their store, where they make their money.

Google is prepared to pretty much give away both hardware AND software, because their real source of revenue is web-based ads and the user info they sell to companies.

Apple has traditionally commoditized software to sell hardware. The original FInal Cut was a MASSIVE price drop from the incumbent NLE options of the early ’00s. Apple bundled iLife software with Macs. The environment of the appStores has pushed software prices down. And FCPXs $299 price point once again redefined the price of editing software.

Since Microsoft has seen fit to hold back Microsoft Office on iOS devices, I think Apple sees an opportunity to basically make sure they never get a foothold by supplying these productivity apps for free. At WWDC, Apple announced a web-based iWork- so even if you’re a PC user at home, you can use iWork across your iOS and Windows PC for nothing- while Microsoft is now looking for an ongoing subscription price for Office365. This makes sense. I could also see Apple just completely doing away with an upgrade fee for OSX updates. The $19.99 is a drop in the bucket against their quarterly earning, and they may see more profit from giving away OSX in perpetuity in lieu of driving hardware sales AND having the largest possible percentage of Mac users be on the newest OS.

FCPX is specialized software- so I don’t see them giving it away. Wouldn’t LogicX also have to be free? It’s price is already low in comparison to the other offerings.

[Marcus Moore]

All true. And as I’m mentioned before I’m a CC subscriber for Ae and Ps, so I benefit directly from Adobe’s improvements here.

Our business has gone thru several cycles where it was advantageous to either use the whole widget from one company, or pick the best products in different areas. it’s take a while for Adobe to get Premier up to snuff- but Adobe has I think defined a clear vision of itself. Outside of CC actually NOT catching on and having to reverse course- I don’t see how they do anything but strengthen their position.

Unless Apple has all new products in the pipeline, Apple has clearly decided to ceeded certain areas of the post market- namely compositing and color correction. Perhaps ultimately they decided they couldn’t deliver the best in class solution in all those areas of HIGHLY specialized tools. We’ll never know exactly why these decisions were made.

Much like the MacPro, perhaps Apple sees strength in a core product- with customization thru expansion to the best 3rd party software the better bet.

I dunno.

I think if Apple can present a 10.1 update with cues from the recent LogicX- I think it could sway loads of FCP7 holdouts, of which there are MANY!

I know for me personally I would certainly bemoan if Apple exited this market. I find the core concepts of FCPX really enticing. And while I’m sure I could transition to another NLE (it’s happened several times before) I’m gonna stick with Apple for the time being and see how this plays out a while longer.

[Marcus Moore]

Part of me still wishes Apple wouldn’t completely ignore these big post news cycles. This will be the second big release from Adobe [NAB, IBC] this year, while Apple has sat quietly on the sidelines. Apple long ago divested itself from being slave to anyone else’s release cycle (other than getting new products out for the holidays), and it certainly makes sense to a degree.

Just anxious to see what they’ve been doing for the past year.

[Marcus Moore]

With Apple and Blackmagic’s current good relations, I don’t see any reason not to think we’ll see CinemaDNG support. That would be- weird.

Adobe is doing good work. I hope Apple will really surprise us with this Fall’s release.

[Marcus Moore]

As much as I love X, I certainly hope software as mature as Premier or Avid has better overall performance- they’ve had enough time to work on it. X can bog down, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing if they’ve been able to improve responsiveness across the board for the pending update. Even if you don’t have a new MacPro.

[Marcus Moore]

I have to disagree with Bret. FCPX may ALLOW Events and Project on the internal drive, but it wasn’t meant for it. It’s never a good idea on any system if you want good performance.

For good performance:

1. More RAM! Any number over 10 will be WAY more acceptable.
2. Use external drive for Projects AND Events.
3. This drive shouldn’t be USB 2. Either USB3.0 or Thunderbolt.