So Final Cut Pro X was released today along with new versions of Compressor and Motion to mixed reviews. Some folks are thrilled at the releases, others are wildly disappointed. Professional Avid Editor's like myself who've been frustrated at FCP's entry into our market space are relieved, and those who use Adode Premiere are likely as well.
(Full disclosure, I'm a member of Avid's Customer Advisory Board for Independent Professionals but that doesn't stop me from trying out other systems and keeping up on the latest technology. I am also known to edit exclusively Avid, turning down jobs for companies that use FCP even when my favorite producers are running the shows because I prefer the tools that Avid provides.)
That said, I did purchase and take a test drive on Apple's new offering and I have some good things to say about it.
What works? The interface (though it crashed twice on me early in the morning) is fairly responsive and intuitive. The ease of bringing clips into the software and maintaining an organized workspace in FCP X was a major upgrade. I thought I would hate it, it's actually kind of fun to play with. The 64 bit processing power is clearly a nice upgrade from the old FCP. It makes editing extremely accessable for almost anyone. I suppose that's the point.
I've been reading on twitter, in forums, and facebook groups about the severe disappointment of longtime FCP users and I can't say I blame them. A major UI overhaul is always a big deal and difficult to manage. The other issue is that the software clearly isn't "Pro" anymore. It doesn't appear to support multicam, high end OMF functionality, EDLs, track assignments, Key Code tracking in MetaData, professional mixing, high end tape formats, and basically anything a professional would require to deliver a long format show.
I saw a post on twitter of someone mocking pro users as complainers who only like hard-to-use editing systems, but the truth is, the other systems aren't difficult for us, and if you had to deliver hundreds of hours of content, in a collaborative environment, to multiple regions, with massive amounts of deliverables, it's nice to use a tool you know you can rely on everytime. FCP X simply wasn't built to execute the current standards of high-end, long-form delivery. And I think it probably won't in the future.
Now FCP loyalists are going to come after me and say I'm some elitist person who can't accept change, but the truth is, I like the FCP X software for what it is and I think it would be smart of Apple to keep it in the playground they've chosen. Here's why...
Apple is loyal to one group of people, its shareholders; Not the small group of high end users that have fallen in love with the old FCP. Remember, when the original FCP was coming out? Apple was trying to sell computers, towers, high end laptops, and a few iMac. All of the iLife apps were developed along with .Mac and .Me to create an ecosystem for the future. Every piece of software technology that Apple has developed has been a push for the future of hardware sales.
Look back over the last 10 years... FCP pushed tower based CPU sales. Apple then shifted to a wider consumer demographic slowly over time, shifting user interfaces to be simpler, button based (for touch screens that would later arrive), integrated web applications, and video for their phones and tablets. Remember those discussions explaing that the iPad was developed before the iPhone? iLife and iWork were being developed to support the iPad years before it's release. iMovie had been in the works for years as well. iTunes was a brilliant strategy to bring together media companies to boost revenue from music, television content, movies, and rentals that would eventually play on Apple TV. FCP was a way to sell the high profit towers when they were a computer company. But by their own admission, they are now a consumer products company Apple Inc. not Apple Computers.
Today where is Apple pulling in most of their money? Consumer products, iPads, iPhones, some monitors (I assume we'll see some touch screen consumer monitor products soon and development of Thunderbolt), music and tv, and laptops.
Apple has gone mobile and consumer based. They make BILLIONS of dollars on consumer products and when you think about it, FCP X is right in the sweet spot for high revenue sales that will push new popular hardware. It is a perfect, simple, elegant tool that helps almost ANYONE think they can edit. There is an entire menu inside dedicated for youtube uploads, Apple TV conversions, and DVD burning. It's a consumer product. The price point is pitch perfect.
Where is this going? Is Apple going to compete for the high end? In this blogger's opinion, no. They don't need to and they shouldn't for their shareholders. They're going to sell incredible volume on this inexpensive editing product that I would guess will be available on the iPad or a Touch Screen iMac within a year or two and likely connect to iCloud. This release dedicates itself to the millions of web video, short content creators that need a simple, high speed, inexpensive solution to get their job done quick and upload even faster. Avid, Adobe, Blackmagic, Sony, Lacie, and G-Tech will push their high-end desktop hardware sales for them at no cost to Apple.
The high-end market is a crowded field with many players in it, and as many fight for dollars from a small group of buyers, they create tightly integrated, network capable, collaborative ecosystems for professional DPs, Editors, Mixers, and Film/Video distributors to do specialized media work. Avid's Unity system handles extensive amounts of Editors working at the same time, on the same project, collaboratively to work through thousands of hours of material on any given show. These companies thrive and profit on scale, infrastructure, and collaboration.
FCP X is clearly designed for a single user, working on a tiny scale, who does not need to collaborate outside of their own ecosystem. There is no divide between projects in the current release so if you have multiple clients, everyone's media and projects live in a single window. That's a stark difference between the competetors who have high security, encripted login project management.
So is FCP dead? No way! There are millions of consumers who will value this. Will they outsell their competitors? At $299, of course, the volume will be tremendous and it will encourage new users to move to Apple Devices and computers. Will it be a "Pro" application that is used in the high end space? Probably not for a long time if ever, it's best filling the market hole that no one is effectively addressing right now, that's where Apple will make the most money in the current climate. And that leaves high end users with either Final Cut Pro 7 that will not be receiving an update, or one of the other amazing options available that benefited from a fiercly competitive Apple and 10 years of competition.
What are your thoughts?
