This one I buy big time. Apple has been looking to get its hands on some of the PC video editing market for a while. But will it run as well on PCs as it does on Macs?
Well, I would be kind of shocked to see things like this. Apple is so Apple-centric they remove posts of other monitors from their Apple Monitors forum. I remember when there used to be Apple clones, but Apple sued those people and that came to a halt.
Y'all sound like you have a much better pulse on what's happening, but wow, those would be some weird changes.
The really weird part about the Apple clone business was that Apple originally endorsed and licensed the clone builders. Then about a year later they suddenly perceived the clone market as a threat instead of an asset and shut them down, trying very hard to make it look like they had never endorsed the idea to begin with.
I firmly doubt this rumour is true. Apple makes money with hardware and if FCP is avalaible on the PC they will loose big money. FCP 5 is also enhanced to work with corevideo which is a 10.4 feature....
They heard about Vegas and will use the iPods profits to position themselves up front on the PC-95%-share-global-market.
Tooo laaaaate... mouarf arf arf !
(unless Vegas 6 really is a mess and Sony starts selling Vaios with FCP already installed... all at the same time)
Ok, I know the exit ! =====> !
Software evolution is going to be a big problem for all companies---someone always comes up with new, inovative, easier, simpler, does more for the money software that blow's away what is currently on the market and they usually start a new booming company that gets bought out by the big guy's to keep proper containment of such. (FCP, Sonic Foundry, DOS, and a zillion others.
I think the best thing a NLE company can do is release an NLE that works with Linux. Apple seems to have the easiest path to this since porting code from BSD to *nix would be easier then to Windows.
If the FCP to PC rumor is true, then Apple will gain an even stronger hold on becoming the industry standard and not only would it cut into Avid's market on the PC, but Adobe's as well.
Would I purchase it and use it? Sure, never hurts to learn it because soem companies want editors that cut on it. The only reason I havent made the move is the ridiculously high priced hardware. But man, Shake and Motion not to mention DVD Studio Pro make it awfully tempting.
If the FCP to PC rumor is true, then Apple will gain an even stronger hold on becoming the industry standard and not only would it cut into Avid's market on the PC, but Adobe's as well.
Would I purchase it and use it? Sure, never hurts to learn it because soem companies want editors that cut on it. The only reason I havent made the move is the ridiculously high priced hardware. But man, Shake and Motion not to mention DVD Studio Pro make it awfully tempting
I hate to say it, but you're exactly right.
Then again, this isn't the first time that this rumor has been floated around. And I don't put too much stock in it-- Apple uses FCP (and FCP Express) to sell hardware; the hardware will quickly be obsolete if FCP moves to PC. Let's be honest, even Apple has to see it that way. If FCP goes PC, then 95% (or whatever) of their target market STILL won't change from a PC... and Apple will be in the strange position that everyone else is in-- realizing that the hardware that they make doesn't have enough of a market base to continue producing it.
That being said-- I'd buy it! I use Vegas at home, FCP & Media 100's at work (and probably a Leitch Velocity HD shortly!), so everything has its own strength & its own shortcomings.
--But man, Shake and Motion not to mention DVD Studio Pro make it awfully tempting
Oh, I see that you've never tried Shake! ;) Shake's a tough one to learn, but it's worth it once you get there (which I'm certainly not!). Motion is cool, but I still prefer After effects. But DVD Studio Pro is a godsend! It is, hands down the best authoring software at a reasonable price point, IMHO.
Of course, I'm open to seeing what DVDA3 is going to wow me with next month, too! :)
I'd be interested to know the origin of your "rumor" - Doesn't surprise me that Apple would consider that however if so they'dll have to deal with people running FCP on cheap, home-built PC's... that is an area they could be shooting themselves in the foot with.
I can't find anything on macrumors.com? Can you point to your FCP HD on PC rumor online?
pmasters said "Couple it with $599 Mac Mini, and it looks more affordable."
Sit down on Apple's site and price out a Mac Mini that has a gig of RAM, Superdrive and wireless. You'll realize that for editing in general that you'll be easily in the iMac range. Mini's cool but targeted for low end users to switch platforms. Once you add monitor, keyboard & mouse, RAM and anything else, it's not such a good deal.
For my wife who work processes and surfs? yes. very enticing.
As far as I know there is no rumor online, however, the source remains annoymous for fear ob being sued by Apple for trade leaks.
Again, I dont know how much stock to put into this but what was told to me makes perfect sense for Apple to try it.
I dont think it would kill hardware sales as much as we think. There is a good portion of video editing taking place on PCs and if Apple were to capture even a third, maybe half of that market, they would more than make up for any lost hardware sales.
AVID did fine offering on both platforms. Add the Apple marketing and hype machine, and the NLE world gets shaken up big time.
I don't think it will kill hardware sales at all however the Apple line of products is for the most part proprietary. They don't use crap in their systems. So along comes the PC user who's home built his machine from low end parts. Knowing Apple, their PC specs for their software most likely will be fairly limited.
Well aside from the branding and it's popularity in the industry. I dunno. Personally I love the Mac platform but HATE editing with FCP. For film it's great but when you're dealing with video and compositing and just editing in general, Vegas is so much more intuitive and user friendly. If I absolutely didn't have to edit for a living, I'd probably be off the PC. I just like the way Macs work better but Vegas is keeping me a PC user indefinately.
I truly don't see that many people switching though. Not sure why they would. Plenty on the PC to work with. It would be nice rather than have to go to Macs to train students on it in my case, keep it on the PC however you won't find many post houses that would make the switch since most of what they have is already built around the Mac's if they're using FCP. So would I train my students on PC's .. nope.. would want to train them on the Mac because that's what's being used with FCP in the professional world.
I for one would be pretty bowled over were this true. FCP would have to totally change it's structure to run on a PC, and moreover, Mac would stand to gain nothing but a small piece of a very large pie. As it is the pie can't support the industry offerings, which is why you're seeing Avid/Pinnacle, Intervideo/Ulead acquisitions, and the acquisition craze is far from over.
We could all be wrong, but that would be a huge shocker for the biz, and I can't imagine Apple being able to remotely keep this quiet for any length of time.
Perhaps its not being released at NAB2005 but maybe announcing they are developing it currently. Who knows. I am just passing along info that may or may not be true. I gues that only leaves Apple, Sony, and Canopus left to partner up against the others.
The problem that Apple faces is simple and its a very common problem right accross the board. Owning 100% of a market means zip if that doesn't translate into revenue. For Apple most of their revenue comes from iPod sales and iTunes. Pretty well anyone who'se going to buy FCP has probably bought it and lets face it even if every production house and TV station bought FCP and a G5 it's still a drop in the ocean in terms of revenue.
Now for every one of those potential sales there's at least 1000 possible users of your products but guess what, they've already bought a PC. Why have they bought a PC even though their school was flooded with Macs? Simple answer, to play games. So now that demographic is growing up, they've got kids, they've got a video camera, they make home movies, they'd like to edit it. Are they going to buy a different PC to do that, no way, they've already got a perfectly capable box to do the job.
A few years ago a very devout but intelligent Mac dealer made a very simple comment to me. He'd just got a PC that ran XP and plugged his camera into it. Up pops a window asking him what he'd like to do with it, would he like to edit his video? In his opinion from then on Apple were in trouble.
Bob.
Apple will run out of things to attach an 'i' to. It has been suggested for many years that they should stop making general purpose computers and become a software and designer gadget company instead.
You can imagine the screaming from the Kool-Aid drinking Jobs devotees though, "assimilated by the Borg!," "Apple has joined the Evil Empire!," etc.
They would have to hire a lot of PC programmers, though. Should be easier however to do this if they were to focus on the PC platform. Can you imagine what it must be like to be a Windows programmer working at Apple (yes, they have a few for QT) today? Colleagues spitting on you in the corridor... "lowlife", "Windows scum!", taunts at the Xmas party, etc.