According to “AppleInsider” (http://www.appleinsider.com), 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.” But at least one industry pro begs to differ.
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.
However, Philip Hodgetts, president of Intelligent Assistance (http://www.intelligentassistance.com/), which makes a variety of software products, writes in an online blog (http://macosg.me/2/a0) that “AppleInsider” is just plain wrong. In fact, he says “they have the entire history of Pro Apps at Apple just plain wrong.” Hodgetts also lists 10 “data points” supporting his premise.
“Apple appear to be revising the Pro Apps kit from it’s original incarnation in 2002-03,” he writes. “We’ve seen hints of more HUD (the white-on-black interface for Motion’s floating palettes) like interface design in places, and that look is very similar to iMovie 09. They’re looking for designers now. It’s likely that whatever the current interface design is, it’s not there yet or they wouldn’t be hiring designers now! Let me go out on a limb and say that it much more likely means that Final Cut Pro is getting a very thorough rewrite. Not just a 64 bit/Cocoa rewrite (and hopefully take advantage of modern OS X features) but a complete rethink.”