Steve Jobs e-mail reassurances notwithstanding, this is a question that’s getting asked a whole lot in editing suites these days, especially those with large Final Cut Pro/Final Cut Studio installations.
While users of other software; Adobe CS Suites including Premiere and After Effects, Avid’s Media Composer, Sony Vegas and Square Box Systems CatDV just to call a couple of, get new features and powerful upgrades Final Cut Pro x editors are stuck waiting on the sidelines.
Sure FCPX got an update last year, but aside from Snow Leopard compatibility and RED camera workflow integration, the changes to FCP — the heart of the package — were negligible and most users found it as a disappointment. (Raise your hand if you wish to notice it as a standalone product).
Here’s what’s making people nervous.
Software applications sold to, and adopted by, professionals need to have regular updates. I’m not talking about bug fixes, although that’s always great too; I’m talking about new features and improved functionality. It would also be nice to learn the people making the tools you utilize to earn your paycheck are listening and getting feedback from many individuals over the editing spectrum. Not this is strictly among the items that got Avid into trouble a few years back and I fear it’s starting to take place with Apple. The secretive nature of Apple’s product development makes many in the editorial world feel as their requests are simply bouncing off the walls of an echo chamber. Don’t misunderstand me; I respect Apple’s decisions to produce their software in whatever way they want, and I still use Final Cut for certain editing tasks. But a cool, hard truth is that in the ten years since it’s release, Final Cut Pro hasn’t gained the maximum amount of traction in the feature film and television worlds as Apple’s marketing might have you believe. The prevailing sentiment of professional editors is that having less upgrades, feature shortcomings and, dare I say it, idiosyncrasies of Final Cut Pro make it a distant second to cutting on an Avid.
Why folks are skeptical.
Apple is in a strange spot with Final Cut Studio; look at the situation. The company has had phenomenal success making use of their mass-market products, the iPod, iPhone, iTunes Store and now iPad and CEO Jobs has clearly stated his emphasis on being perceived as more of a “gadgets” company. Final Cut Pro is unquestionably a huge success, but let’s face it, professional video editing software throws nowhere as wide a net as the business’s iGadgets or even products like Logic Studio and Aperture. Although Apple is the first choice at creating software that’s incredibly intuitive and easy to use, pro content creation packages are inherently more technical and require a foundation amount of technical knowledge to use with confidence. Adding new features and functionality often magnifies this case hence, I believe Apple’s reluctance to do so.
Then needless to say there’s the sad story of Shake, the respectable visual effects software applied to films such as for instance The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. It’s still unclear why Apple, after buying the program from Nothing Real, essentially left it to languish for decades without upgrades before finally killing it off last July. And don’t get me started with Final Cut Server.
Apple’s quandary seems as follows. First, how do they refine the Final Cut Pro/Studio feature set and add a few of the functionality the consumer base has been clamoring for without making the product too complex? Second, how much cash and, more importantly, programming resources does Mr. Jobs & Co. divert from their wildly successful, profitable and growing type of gadgets devices to invest in a comparatively niche market product? Especially given that Apple already has iMovie and Final Cut Express, two excellent editing applications, better suited to their wider audience?
In a cultural phenomenon that’s become akin to spotting the image of the Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich, an Apple customer recently received an email from Steve dismissing the proven fact that Apple is abandoning Pro Video. In some slack from his usual one-sentence replies, the uber CEO was relatively prosaic in attempting to allay the writer’s fears and clarify the state of Final Cut Studio development. Although he gave no indication of when it will happen, Jobs stated that the company “certainly is” committed to Final Cut and that the next release will soon be “awesome.” MacSoda, the blog that broke the story (and connected to above) claims it has it on “reliable word” this will happen “by the finish of 2010.”
So I guess we’ll have to hold back and see so how committed Apple is always to pro video and to those people who’ve invested time and profit Final Cut Pro. Maybe if we try real hard we’ll spot something in a tree, or perhaps a Pizza pan. Even if we don’t get a miracle, any kind of indication would really be “awesome.”
Final cut pro x 