Since Apple launched Final Cut Pro X last Tuesday, I’ve had more than 3,500 emails that range from “I’m enjoying FCP X and creating useful projects,” to “FCP X will destroy my ability to make a living.” (And, ah, far worse, I’m sad to say.)
When I first saw Final Cut X, I was excited by its potential, but warned Apple that this release would be intensely polarizing to the editing community. It does not give me pleasure to see that I was right.
Worse, Apple has alienated the very people who can make a very visible statement as to the inadequacy of the program. No clearer example can be found than the public ridicule of FCP X on the Conan O’Brien show.
Or, as David Pogue wrote in his New York Times blog: “…let me be clear on this point — I think Apple blew it.”
With the possible exception of the launch of MobileMe, I can’t think of an Apple product launch which has spun more wildly out of control than this one. Apple did not just blow this launch, they went out of their way to alienate their key customer base.
Which is a shame, because FCP X has such great potential — but now, Apple has to concentrate on damage control, rather than getting people excited about the new program.
After the launch, Apple compounded their problems with three extremely poorly timed moves:
1. Canceling Final Cut Studio (3) and pulling all existing product from the market. This is devastating to shops that can’t use Final Cut Pro X. The two applications can co-exist on the same system — killing FCP 7 will not boost sales of FCP X to those shops that can’t run it. All it does is set up a black market for FCP 7.
2. Not providing – then publicly stating (thru David Pogue’s New York Times blog) that they do not plan to provide – a conversion utility from FCP 7 to FCP X. Not only does this render a HUGE number of past projects inaccessible, it sets up the obvious conclusion that if Apple is willing to discontinue support for legacy applications with no warning, what’s to prevent them from doing so again in the future? Every time you watch a movie that is more than 6 months old, you are dealing with legacy assets. Not providing a conversion utility is completely inexcusable.
3. Leaving the support for interchange formats – XML, EDL, OMF and others – to third-parties; or not supporting them at all. Yes, the video and film industry needs to move into the current century. However, Hollywood is very reluctant to change what works. Meeting deadlines is far more important than adopting new technology. Apple’s walled garden approach is totally at odds with the nature of post-production, where the editing system is the hub around which a wide variety of other applications revolve. On any editing project I routinely run 5-10 other programs simultaneously — only three of which are from Apple. I am constantly moving data between programs. This, combined with a lack of support for network-based storage, highlight grave development decisions in determining what features to include in the program.
NOTE: Apple told Pogue that they are working on providing the specs for their XML API. This is essential for any third-party developer to access conversion “hooks” in the program. David didn’t report that they mentioned when this would be available, however.
When I was talking with Apple prior to the launch, they told me that they extensively researched the market to determine what needed to be in the new program. In retrospect, I wonder what people they were talking with.
As I was working with the program, developing my FCP X training series, I often felt that the program was developed for two different audiences. Some features, effects for instance, are clearly geared for the iMovie crowd, while others, like trimming or 4K support, are geared for pros. The program sometimes felt like it wasn’t sure what it wanted to be when it grew up.
In FCP X, Apple got some things amazingly right. But they also got key features amazingly wrong. And if they don’t change course, this software, which has significant potential, is going to spin further and further out of control. At which point, its feature set is irrelevant, its reputation will be set. We’ll be looking at another Mac Cube.
Apple does not normally ever comment on future products – though they did this year, prior to WWDC, because they needed to reset expectations. Because of the visibility of this product into an audience that can cause extensive PR damage to Apple, I suggest that Apple break its usual vow of silence and do three things:
1. Immediately return Final Cut Studio (3) to the market. If it is not compatible with Lion (and I don’t know whether it is or not) label it so. But put it back on store shelves so consumers have the ability to work with the existing version until FCP X is ready for prime time.
2. Fund the development of a conversion utility – either at Apple or thru a 3rd-party – and announce the development with a tentative release date.
3. Publicly announce a road-map for FCP X that just covers the next 3-4 months. Apple needs to be in damage control mode and the best way to defuse the situation is to communicate. Answering the question: “What features will Apple add to FCP X, and when?” will go a long way to calming people down.
I have written in my earlier blog (read it here) that FCP X has a lot of potential, and, for some, it meets their needs very nicely. I still believe that.
I was also pleased to provide training on FCP X so that new and existing users can get up to speed on it quickly.
I don’t mind helping a product develop into its full potential. I enjoy providing feedback and helping people to learn new software. I don’t even mind that FCP X is missing some features; this is to be expected in any new software.
But I mind a great deal being forced to adopt a product because other options are removed, forced to lose access to my legacy projects, and forced to work in the dark concerning when critically needed features will be forthcoming.
This launch has been compared to Coca-Cola launching New Coke – resulting in a humiliating loss of market share.
With Final Cut Pro X, however, the situation is worse — with New Coke, only our ability to sip soda was affected. With Final Cut Pro X, we are talking losing livelihoods.
Let me know what you think,
Larry
253 Responses to Apple's Challenges
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Robert says:
June 27, 2011 at 1:05 pm
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June 27, 2011 at 1:08 pm
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Konrad says:
June 27, 2011 at 1:21 pm
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David Sallak says:
June 27, 2011 at 1:36 pm
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June 27, 2011 at 1:51 pm
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Deyson says:
June 27, 2011 at 2:13 pm
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Frazier Nivens says:
June 27, 2011 at 2:16 pm
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Reg says:
June 27, 2011 at 2:32 pm
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June 27, 2011 at 2:32 pm
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Louis says:
June 27, 2011 at 3:07 pm
← Older Comments Newer Comments →Maybe it’s time to switch to Pepsi. It might taste a little different, and need a bit of getting use to, but you know what you are getting and you know they won’t change the receipt on you.
I tried the New Coke but switched to Pepsi. I don’t like the taste of FCP X either. I have FCS 3 and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 on my Mac. I won’t be upgrading…. errrr, switching to FCP X.
Nice Coca Cola analogy. Apple should now be like Coca Cola and bring back FC Studio “Classic.”
Hello Larry,
I am glad to see you have to guts to come out and voice criticism. A lot more of that should be heard, not just from the users but in print and news media. The way Apple handled this is unbelievable from start to finish. First their showing off with the sneak preview; in hindsight clearly taking the piss out of the user base, now followed by complete silence. They couldn’t care less. I am certain there won’t be a statement from them.
I have seen Apple up high, then take a deep fall and now they are on top of the hill again. But these are cycles and it is only a matter of time untill they take a dive with their increasing arrogance and propriatory brick wall mentality. Back then, their dedicated user base stuck with them and saved their butt. Not the hip lifestyle crowds. Now they spat in our face. I wonder how much of that dedicated user base beyond the glitz and glamour will be left when the time has come that not everything “i” is cool anymore. I am confident Apple in turbo capitalism mode will roll over many more people in the future and betray their trust.
To Loye – “As high and nightly as Avid has behaved in the past even they have never pulled such a blunder.”
Oh yes they have – at NAB in 1998 or 99 (I can’t recall which) Avid announced they would no longer support Mac, and would be exclusively PC (see Media Composer Meridian v9, never shipped on Mac). The Hollywood post community responded angrily and insisted that Avid go back on their statement, and support Mac too. Avid relented and released MC 10, but the impact of Avid’s arrogance took more than a decade to overcome.
One other note – back in the day, Media100 announced a new FX/edit platform called the 844X. It could not open any projects created on any of the existing Media100 edit systems, and the company had effectively ceased to develop other existing edit platforms. Media100 had effectively abandoned their customer base – deciding that it wasn’t important to offer their users the ability to bring their projects forward to the new platform. It didn’t help that the 844X cost 2x the price of a Media100.
This Apple FCPX situation feels very similar, albeit the cost of the tool went down. But still, the older and more-capable product won’t get future enhancement or compatibility support. Can’t go forward if you can’t use what brought you here.
A lot of people are saying “final cut X has potential” …
— well, just imagine what would happen if I go to my landlord and tell him. “Hey I don’t have the money this week, but I am looking for a job and have some potential” —
My question is: potential to what? be a professional editing software?…let me remind you, it wasn’t till FPC version 3 that FPC started to be considered a pro editing software.
This has happened many times in Apple’s history, from the time the floppy disk was eliminated, OS9 was replaced with OSX, to the time right before Livetype first came out. In the long run after the dust is settled I believe everyone forgot all about and loved the step forward.
Plus updates are coming soon. ( google search: apple updates in 6 months )
The mobile community still needs awesome content creation. That is where we the “pros” come in, those who get paid to communicate.
For now, I will keep using FCP 7 until all the kinks get worked out, I will play and learn with Final Cut X so when the issues get worked out into the new Final Cut X I will then be ready.
Let us not forget FCPX just came out a few days ago so I am sure we will get some surprises soon.
I feel Final Cut 7 still rocks! Especially Motion 4?
Seems I spend more time in Motion now than in FCP7.
In my opinion we get an awesome editor ( FCPX, Motion and Compressor ) for less than $500.00 that integrates with imovie which can get you more collaboration with imovie users ex; producers, directors and clients, it takes full use of your 64 bit system, and a nice fat GUI ( huge multi-touch potential). I personally think it will be well worth the wait for them to answer or needs.
Apple for all that they do is still a small company.
They are providing not only sleek content delivery, but also a way to create it, more reason for them to provide great tools.
Until now they have had a pretty good track record in my book for being forward thinkers and I have grown to really to like them and trust them.
My 2.5 cents 🙂
P.s. I believe there is a reason why they did not replace Final Cut 7 when we update, in the past when we updated; the old version of FCP got deleted. This is the first time I remember that a new FCP did not replace the old, must be for a reason I think.
Let me know what you think.
Have an awesome day!
Just requested a refund for Final Cut X. Sorry Larry, till they get it fixed I’m not in on this one…
Do we know if Lion is going to run Final Cut Studio 3?
Any tutorials on Premiere Pro 5.5? I’ve heard good things, and I can try it out for a month via subscription.
We are a facility with 10 editing stations connected to XSAN. Although we are a complete Mac facility, we aren’t blindly committed to Apple. We started seeing issues not months ago, but several years ago. New releases, in reality, were simply bug fixes that other software developers would offer free of charge. Apple started nickle and diming us to death. While FCP X was just a rumour, we switched to Adobe and Nvidia Cuda cards. Best move we ever made. Stand alone software just can’t compete with software that is designed to use hardware acceleration. We’re not even considering looking at FCP X. Now, Google Android has overtaken Iphone. No doubt Apple is in decline, but can Jobs and company stow their egos and see whats really going on and turn things around. Or are they no longer the flavour of the day regardless of what they do?
I think many people are missing the point. If a company (let’s say Apple) can “focus” and make a bazillion more dollars on “consumer” vs. “pro” then they are going to do that.
Apple has spent the last 10 years focusing…and cutting their products down from 143 (or so) to a very small amount. This has been positive for them. And the same may be true in the “video editing” world.
So, it feels calculated. It feels purposeful. It feels like a bummer, because the TRUE functionality I need to do what I do every day isn’t there. And it feels like a strategic move.
I just wish someone at Apple would admit it.
I for one have no desire to use a program that I have to buy 3rd party plug-ins just to do basic editing functions inside a software program that should already have this. How do I know they won’t “change” again next quarter…and now i’m “re-purchasing” all the plug-ins I need to do what I do?!
That’s nice that Apple is “forward” looking. But “speed” and “processing” doesn’t replace functionality. We are STILL exporting seperated audio tracks to sweetening / audio houses in NY. We still require free-agent editors or motion graphics people to work with our timelines, media and source ftg. Making it difficult to “play” with other (ESPECIALLY in the world we operate in now) is a deal breaker.
It’s a strategic shift. Typically those shifts are based up profitability, sales and market share. I don’t mean market share in the production world. I mean market share in the world…period.
Someone come out and say it!
I agree Larry, but want to point out another huge omission. Though few are mentioning it in mainstream, Apple’s declaration that DVD is dead and you can therefore no longer add chapter markers in their new editing software is not only arrogant, but it sees the world as they wish it to be and not as it is. True DVD isn’t the future. But right now, today there are some clients whose internet is neither stable nor fast enough to view their $40,000 project on and a simple DVD is the fastest, most reliable and cost effective means available. If Apple had their way, we would all be regulated to youtube or vimeo, where you just don’t know…is it going to play now…or what about now…