AppleInsider said that Apple’s Final Cut Studio suite of video post production apps is getting a “significant makeover to better target the software to the mainstream of Apple’s customer base rather than high end professionals.” The site may be right, but I just can’t see it happening for a couple of reasons.
Quoting “a person with knowledge of Apple’s internal Pro Apps plans,” “AppleInsider” says Apple has shuffled around management within the Final Cut team in order to retarget its efforts to more closely match the needs of the majority of its customers. Apple’s Mac customer base has steadily shifted from desktop models to notebooks, while also broadening out from a high end creative niche to a wider installed base that includes more prosumer and advanced home users, the article adds.
That’s true. But it seems to be that there’s little sense behind a major tweak in the Final Cut Pro strategy for two reasons:
One: Final Cut Pro is a leader in the field of pro video production. Why would Apple change it to a more prosumer solution unless the company was abandoning the pro market? And since the creative professional market is one of the most lucrative for Apple (at least in terms of sheer profit on high-end products), that doesn’t seem likely.
Two: Apple already has Final Cut Express for the prosumer market, as well as iMovie for the consumer market. In other words, they already have an effective three-tiered approach.
BTW, Philip Hodgetts, president of Intelligent Assistance (http://www.intelligentassistance.com/), also offers a good case (http://macosg.me/2/a0) why Apple is probably not shifting the focus of Final Cut Studio.
— Dennis Sellers