Marcus Moore
Forum Replies Created
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I decided to take the plunge on Creative Cloud- I figured that it would be at least 4 years before I was paying more than someone who bought Production Premium outright (based on initial purchase price plus upgrade costs for new versions).
I only wish I’d held off another 3 weeks… when Adobe decided to do another FCP switch discount. Ug!
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As to the existence of a “MacPro” replacement, there’s no Kreminology going on here. Apple via Tim Cook has said a product for the MacPro market is coming in 2013 (See email quoted below)
Whether it at all lines up with the machine that Apple says it will build in the US is, as I said in my post, guesswork. But by process of elimination, what product could it be. He said “Mac” so it’s not iPads or iPhones. He said a whole “line” would be manufactured here, so that means either laptops, MacMini, iMac, or MacPro. Only one of those product doesn’t have an established production line in another country.
The only other new product line I could see would be a new TV related Mac, but I don’t see whatever Apple’s entry into TV as being anything but an iOS device.
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Unquestionably, Tim Cook’s email was cagy in NOT saying they were releasing a new MacPro, but something for that market.
Considering Apple is still using the MacBookPro naming distinction, I could see them very well sticking with the name MacPro, even if the product changes dramatically.
But regardless of what form it takes, I just don’t see them releasing a product in this category without advanced processor, GPU or PCI support. If it doesn’t contain those things, then it’s not fulfilling any need that a spec’d out iMac currently isn’t.
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We’re actually not too far off from the release schedule from last year. 10.0.2 came out in mid-November, with bug fixes and stability improvements. So there isn’t anything decidedly “new” going on here.
One notable difference is that 10.0.2 came with the preview list of features coming in 10.0.3; and a quick check of Apple’s FCPX site reveals no sneak peak this time….
So I think we are headed for 10.1, but not necessarily next. Perhaps it’s an overly simplistic view of FCPX’s development cycle, but two more updates (1 feature and 1 bug fix) on their current schedule would take us pretty much right up to NAB in April. Could we be in for a 10.1 preview at the NAB Supermeet with a 2-year anniversary release in June? I hope so since I’ll be there!
As to paid upgrade, I’ve said all along that when Apple moves from reintegrating legacy features to enhanced or all new functionality; like auto-transcription, multi-user functionality, deeper mixing tools, etc…. (stuff that was never in FCP7) will be when they charge for an update. I think one more solid feature update and they will have taken care of all the “low hanging fruit” in terms of functional reintegration.
But it’s binary choice for pricing, since the macAppStore has no capacity for upgrade pricing. Either it will be free, or it will be $299.
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It’s complete supposition, but in a way it makes sense. If Apple plans to manufacture an entire line of Apple machines here, it might be the best test of the idea to start with a high margin, low volume product.
That’s the MacPro to a “T”.
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “I wonder at Apple’s pricing here, and whether the new 299 figure represents a realisation that they can take an amazon style approach to the market. In that they are engaged in market decimation through pricing, simply because they can. “
You’re absolutely correct, but this shouldn’t come as any surprise- Apple’s recent history is centered around commoditizing software as an incentive to push their hardware.
iTunes by sheer volume generates a decent income at this point, but through most of the ’00s it was referred to as a “break-even” business- at that point primarily as an inroad to sell iPods.
Final Cut was a fraction of the cost of most of it’s competitors when it launched, even if it’s feature set wasn’t comparable to the incumbents at the very start (that’s sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)
Apple’s bundling of quality iLife apps on Macs for no added cost was long seen as an advantage for the platform.
Recently, both the iOS and OSX appStores have generally lead to a push down on the pricing of software. Again, with the goal being to drive the purchase of iPhones, iPads, and Macs respectively.
FCPX only continues this trend.
It is really, truly, interesting that we have these companies with entirely different business models intersecting now. Both Amazon and Google are happy to sell their hardware at break even prices to drive the adoption of Amazon sales and Google search respectively. While Apple is on the other end, looking to make a profit on hardware while making small margins on content.
It remains to be seen which model can stand the test of time- though a look a quarterly results leads me to believe that Apple is certainly winning by sheer profits. Pure marketshare can only sustain you so long if you’re not making any money.
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[Herb Sevush] “That’s funny because I don’t remember them asking me why I was buying it, they just seemed happy to take my money. The last I looked they had MacPro’s on display at my local Apple store, which is an interesting way of discouraging purchasers.”
To be realistic, if you drew two circles: one representing those who are potential MacPro buyers, and the other representing people who DON’T keep up with some measure of Apple news and rumours… I think the overlapping area would be incredibly small.
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It wasn’t my original assertion, so I take no credit for your guffaws.
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Chris,
On the hardware side of things, sorry I haven’t been privy to all the conversations around here. Understanding why Apple waits for native on-chip support is beyond me technically- I just recognize that it’s something they seem to do. And perhaps as someone in a thread a couple months ago said, perhaps Apple felt like they’d rather not encourage people to buy in 2012 when they knew the “next big thing’ was coming in 2013. Who knows?
Unquestionably Apple’s openness about FCPX so far has been in response to it’s poor start. Frankly I still think they could and should be doing more on the outreach side. My personal belief is that FCPX has a harder PR battle to fight than technical.
As to “remaining legacy features”. You’re right on mixing- I think Roles is only a half-there solution at this stage (but one which I think will hold huge benefits once fully implemented). The other is collaborative workflow, which was more FinalCutServer, but it’s an area I think many still hold as a limitation vs legacy FCP. Tighter Motion integration needs to return as well. Those are the major areas, I think.
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