Who's Accountable?

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Larry

Like many of you, I’ve been losing sleep this last week trying to figure out what’s going to happen to my business after the debacle of the Final Cut Pro X launch.

I read in a blog last night that Steve Jobs has gotten involved in this mess and that “really great things will be happening really soon.”

So my first question is: “Why does Steve Jobs need to get directly involved in what is essentially a straight-forward upgrade to one of their well-established products?”

And this led me to a bigger thought: “Who’s Accountable?”

As I woke up this morning, I had a day-dream of Phil Schiller, VP of Worldwide Marketing, appearing on my podcast, the Digital Production Buzz, to answer questions from listeners.

(In reality, this will never happen. Apple stopped giving on-the-record interviews, with the exception of Mr. Jobs, many years ago.)

So, imagining that Mr. Schiller were on the program, here are the questions I would ask:

1. What was the benefit to Apple of immediately canceling Final Cut Studio (3) with the release of a brand-new and untested product; when there was no technical reason (according to Apple) to do so?

2. Why did Apple feel it was necessary to alienate one of their most passionate fan bases with this release; were professional users that expendable?

3. What responsibility does Apple have when canceling a product to companies that built businesses around those products in terms of notification and support?

4. Conversely, what does Apple require of its vendors, when a supplier to Apple decides to modify a manufacturing method?

5. What is the benefit to Apple for assuming a strict rule of silence whenever something goes wrong? (A short period for research is understandable, but not when it stretches for weeks. The number one rule of PR is communication – but, apparently, not for Apple.)

6. Conversely, what would Apple’s reaction be if one of its vendors, say FoxConn, refused to talk to Apple when something went wrong, such as an explosion?

7. Why is Apple unwilling to provide a general roadmap to those products it considers “professional”?

8. Conversely, what would Apple’s reaction be if Intel refused to tell it about new chips it was developing?

9. Trust is a very tricky thing. It takes time to create and can be destroyed in an instant. Does Apple perceive the extent to which it has breached this trust and what will Apple do to recover from it?

Not one of these questions deals with the features of a product. They deal with the moral character of a company.

As consumers, we are held accountable through license agreements, laws, and regulation.

But who holds corporations accountable?

The sad part is that no one holds corporations accountable. We will never learn these answers. And the damage that’s been done will be irreparable.

Larry

66 Responses to Who's Accountable?

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David Kuhnen says:

July 8, 2011 at 2:58 pm

russtafa,

Thanks much, I have been closely monitoring Walter’s blog with new developments.

http://www.biscardicreative.com/blog/

Also interesting, the description you gave for what Apple should have done is similar to what people (including Walter) are saying is what Adobe does right.
Larry says:

July 8, 2011 at 3:09 pm

Excellent comments – thanks.

Larry
David Lazaro says:

July 8, 2011 at 3:49 pm

I think that the Pro division of Apple should go separate from the mainstream products. Take Sony as an example: you won’t find their broadcast monitoring displays intermixed with their Bravia TV sets in _any_ of their catalogs or websites.

Pro products should include everything with the Pro moniker sold by Apple, including hardware like the Mac Pro and the MacBook Pro. We need to be able to make the same decisions, with the same clarity as when buying server and workstations from HP, for example.

The situation with the professional market and Apple is very muddy right now. I’m not making any decision until some months have passed. I’ll give them till Q4. I’ve been eyeing HP’s Z600 and Z800 and some mobile workstation solutions from HP and Dell as possible substitutes for Macs in the event that future Pro apps and hardware keep going in that murky middle line between prosumer and truly professional and without clear roadmaps. Right now there’s too much uncertainty with Apple’s professional product lines.
Kris Trexler says:

July 8, 2011 at 4:07 pm

Larry,

As I long time constantly employed pro Avid editor with a long career in Hollywood, I had not been exposed to you and your training services prior to FCX. I have seen some of your FCX videos and you’re by far the best trainer for editing software I’ve ever encountered. Your warm and friendly voice and nurturing guidance puts you at the head of the pack.

I’m not gonna let FCX beat me…with the help of your tutorials, I’m determined to master the beast as best as I can. I’ve edited videotape with a Smith Splicer, used the Ampex Editec, output punch tape EDL’s on CMX, conquered the clunky LaserEdit system, and had a great career as an Avid editor. The old reliable “source-record” workflow is second nature to me and all pro editors, and I’m determined to “get” this wacky FCX concept with your help.

You’ll serve the editing community well by offering “Adobe Premiere Pro for Final Cut Pro 7 (and earlier) Editors” and “Avid Media Composer for Final Cut Pro 7 (and earlier) Editors.” Along with your FCX course, you’ll have your bases covered.

Regards,
Kris
Larry says:

July 8, 2011 at 4:24 pm

Kris:

Thanks for the comments. I still have some CMX paper tapes lying around here somewhere — ah, just in case I need to reedit them.

Larry
Ryan Ritchey says:

July 8, 2011 at 4:52 pm

Larry,
I’ve had a real love/hate with FCP X since it came out, but now that I’ve used it on a very basic project, well let’s just say Premiere is installing as we speak… I wrote about my change of course here: http://bit.ly/pgnrQ3

But the bottom line is, Avid and Adobe treat their customers as adults, and Apple takes the “you’ll get your shiny toy when we say so” approach. I would rather use software from a company that treats me as a peer rather than a child. The Apple strategy is great for selling the world more phones, but not for selling software upon which people have staked their livelihoods.
David White says:

July 8, 2011 at 5:04 pm

I think Apple will lose badly with this transition. FCP’s reputation as a professional product has pretty much gone overnight. They stand to lose the higher education market, and the goodwill they had built up with the pro community (which got them into broadcast facilities around the world) has all but evaporated – all due to poor communication and arrogance.

They stand to gain the part-time video enthusiast, but at $299 I think they have misread the market.
Don B says:

July 8, 2011 at 5:07 pm

Looks like Philip Bloom is moving to Adobe. This is from a review for “An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro” that he posted on Amazon:

I am currently in the process of switching from Final Cut Pro 7 to Premier Pro CS5.5 and this book has been an essential guide for me. Clear explanations, broken down in the right size chunks. It pretty much tells me everything I need to know.

A must have.

Philip Bloom
DP, DIrector, FIlmmaker
[…]
Don B says:

July 8, 2011 at 5:15 pm

Great quote from Biscardi’s blog:

http://www.biscardicreative.com/blog/

“With Final Cut Pro X … because Tape and Capture Cards don’t fit with the “modern workflow” model, Apple dropped all support for them natively inside the application. Without that support for tape formats, I cannot make a living in our workflow.

The same apparently applies to “legacy projects” too. As in “You will not be able to open old projects because we say so.” Apparently Final Cut Pro X is only for “Modern Projects” and cannot be sullied by “Old Projects.”

So I gotta say, while I was really looking forward to whenever the iPad 3 comes out, I’m starting to get very annoyed with “You Can’t Do That Because We Say So” and the “You Will Do It Our Way” attitudes from Apple.

That’s not really “Thinking Different,” that’s “Telling You How To Think.”

With Final Cut Pro X, that was Apple “Telling You How To Edit Video.”

Does any of this remind of you of a certain 1984 commercial from an upstart company? Only now that upstart is directing the minions…….
James I says:

July 8, 2011 at 5:20 pm

Larry, your list of questions is perfect and I wish Apple would answer them.

But as for Steve Jobs “getting” involved — c’mon, who in Apple *other* than Steve Jobs would ever have had the chutzpah to authorize shipping FCP X without previous project-import support *and* EOLing FCP 7 other than Steve Jobs? Can you honestly imagine Randy Ubillos or Phil Schiller passionately arguing that FCP 7 and Server *had* to be EOL’d without warning?

Steve’s a genius, admittedly, but that doesn’t mean he can’t make mistakes. I cannot believe that anyone other than Steve called for FCP X to replace FCP 7.