[Richard Coulombe]

On June 2, I ordered an upgrade from my Final Cut Studio 1 (FCS) license to FCS 3, for 299.00 $, as well as a set of user guides for 29.95 $, from my Apple authorized retailer, the oldest in Quebec city, Canada.

On June 21, Final Cut Pro X was launched by Apple and at the same time FCS 3, Final Cut Server and XSan were removed from market and EOLed.

On July 7 and 8, I contacted my retail store to have an update on my order. On the latter, the store buyer reluctantly informed me Apple had cancelled my order on june 21 (a full two weeks after the fact!!!) and made a pass on me offering a full FCS 3 license for 999.95 $.

On July 9, I offered the store manager to buy the FCS 3 seat they had offered me for 328.95 $, which was the price of the order I had made through them. He refused, explaining that the profit they made from the 5000 $ I had bought in equipment from them during the last three years would not cover their loss and they would be better to send the package to Apple for a refund. I informed the retailer my relationship with them had just ended and that I would do business with their competitors in the future.

The same day, I found on the Internet an upgrade license for FCS 3 for sale at 300.00 $.

On July 10, I bought the FCS 3 license and installed it on my workstation.

On July 19, I received an email from my former Apple authorized retailer relaying an Apple offer for the FCS 3 update I had ordered seven weeks earlier.

I was very happy to tell them and Apple I had bought secondhand what both Apple and them had deemed I was not entitled to, and happy to deprive Apple from the 300 bucks they obviously did not care to get from me in the previous months.

As the BBC, Discovery Networks and many other production houses, VFX facilities of all sizes and individuals around the world have already done, I am about to purchase Adobe CS 5.5 Production Suite at the 50% discount with an Nvidia Quattro 4000 CUDA graphics card.

What I can say about my relationship with Apple is that there is no longer any, of any kind. The yearlong persisting rumors about Apple ditching the video professional market turned out to be true. The hooplah Apple put on at NAB, led by Randy Ubillos, telling the industry that Apple cared and that there would be other announcements regarding their professional software were very misleading, to put it mildly.

What strikes me most in the introduction of FCPX, along with my treatment as a customer, is the level of arrogance and disdain the decision makers at Apple have expressed to a longtime community of active supporters and evangelists, the professional video editors. Apple managers have just cut Apple from a very lucrative market in the most despicable fashion. Power corrupts. And the most visible exertion of power is in the absurd. These people have shown the extent of their power alright…

In my view, their latest announcement about the availability of FCS 3 licenses is the continuation of that inexcusable attitude, since Apple is not telling it will provide license for as long as their ACTUAL customers need them, only to get rid of their stock, and by not offering upgrades from FCS 1 or 2.

What Apple customers must now ask themselves is: “Who’s next?”