[Stuart Cohen]

Does anyone remember the “New Coke” Guess this is Apple’s “New Coke”. But try actually finding that anywhere anymore. The old formula came back, after the company found a way to save face when they realized what a massive marketing flop the new product was.

Unfortunately, in the end what Apple has done isn’t all that different than what broadcast engineers and designers have done to editors going back to the days of CMX, Grass Valley and Sony BVE edit systems. Someone is always designing something they think is an improvement, without a clue how the product actually gets used by professionals in the field. And a good salesman is always able to convince some network or post house executive to spend money on that crap that makes a job harder.

Look at most of the lesser-known server-based desktop edit systems broadcast facilities are using today and ask yourself why anyone would buy Grass Valley’s Aurora system or Leitch’s old Predator system with its magenta and yellow edit points…known to the rest of the industry as in and out points…when most of the editors in the world know Avid or FCP like the backs of they hands.

Some engineer at Apple was able to convince his bosses that he had a great idea that would make our lives better. Now we’ll just have to wait until they figure out how to fix their mistake without too much embarrassment and cost. In 2 years maybe FCP X will be better known as iMovie Ultimate and the home video hobbyists will have made it a success. Meanwhile, hopefully the Pro will have been designed back into Final Cut.

[Stuart Cohen]

I guess that means there are some good deals to be had on E-bay for Final Cut Suite 3 at a fraction of the cost when it was a current program. I can’t imagine a TV station that would want to pass up a chance to save money. If all the editors are trained on FCP, they’ll be as lost if your station upgrades to FCPX as anything else.