[Avid-L2] Re: OT:"Apple scaling Final Cut Studio apps to fit prosumers"

Philip is likely spot on, but were I at Apple I would be thinking:

1) We no longer need ProApps to sell our hot hardware. Those days are
over. The fact is customers want our hardware and OS. Pros will buy
our hardware even if we sold nothing more than it.

2) Despite pissing off Adobe over Flash, it was really a simple kick
in the butt to get them to support html 5 and h264. We want them to
get WITH our strategy.

3) Most creatives use Adobe CS. Premiere has been the weak point. But,
let's face-it, Premiere with CUDA blows our current offerings away and
helps sell our hardware.

4) Avid has finally got their act together. And, MC 5 is perfect for
our high-end MBP, iMac, and MPs. So it too sells our hardware. Just as
does Office.

5) Bottom-line, there are two companies who are willing to spend to
support the "pro" editing market. Do we need to spend the money to
keep-up with them?

6) NO. It will cost a ton of money to update a version of FCS to use
all the functions in our new OS. It will cost even more money to fix
all the bugs in data management and the bugs we've been ignoring for
years. So we will spend lots of money and time and will then have to
face improved Adobe and Avid products.

7) NO. Where is the most media editing being done? Not Hollywood and
NYC. Let Avid have this VERY niche market! EVERYONE is editing media
today. Therefore, we need to focus on the 2010 and beyond media
market. But, what about Adobe? Not to worry! CS5 is overly complex
internally and externally. It is too hard to learn and too expensive.
Let Adobe fight with Avid.

8) NO. Nothing in FCS. MC, and CS5 really show-off "Apple 2012." Apple
doesn't do what others do! We only do revolutionary products -- and a
re-worked FCS isn't revolutionary. (Meaning a product that demos well.)

9) When Apple does a product it must be revolutionary, hit the middle
(read largest) segment of the market, and support our mobile strategy.
Which is iWork, iLife, iWeb, and MobielMe do. Just as we don't build a
copy of Office -- we should not -- in 2012 -- build a copy of CS5 or MC.

10) Although iLife's problem is no longer its lack of iMovie 06's FX
-- it has huge problems working with interlaced video. It also can't
do the level of projects than can be done with FCE. But, it has been a
wonderful lab experiment. Randy designed it and I'm sure he must have
read the thousands upon thousands of posts screaming about it's lack
of quality video exports and it's terrible reliability -- especially
with 10.6. I doubt he will simply alter iMovie 09. He will start over.

11) Although, it's not hard to imagine an iPad version.

12) Therefore,I imagine a new product with YUV rather than RGB
internals, that can handle both interlaced and progressive video, that
can handle native H.264 editing along with ProRes 422, and can deal
with all frame-rates. Obviously, features such as full audio control
and audio FX are needed. And, there needs to be a way of nicely
handling big projects. (Maybe a Timeline mode will need to be added.)
Integrate GarageBand music composition features and revised iWeb
functions, and you have a tool to support Apple's entire mobile
strategy. In fact, it also supports the major growing markets:
corporate, education, government, worship, and indie narrative and
docs. (Who knows, even a version of iDVD that burns BD.) This product
hits the sweet-spot for Apple.

Steve Mullen

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

------------------------------------

Please donate to the Red Cross to help those in earthquake ravaged Chile: http://tinyurl.com/y8pgceq

Search the offical complete Avid-L archives at: http://archives.bengrosser.com/avid/

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Avid-L2/

<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Avid-L2/join
(Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
Avid-L2-digest@yahoogroups.com
Avid-L2-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Avid-L2-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/