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I admit it, I own several Apple Macintosh computers. Before you all send me hate mail however – in my defense I am a child of the Unix era, and find that OSX suits my needs more than Windows. I don't game much, and I like the robustness of the latest OSX platform.
I have noticed that Apple in recent months seem to be promoting their software heavily on the App Store. Yesterday while I was browsing for new things to play with, I stumbled upon Final Cut Pro X, which was being offered as a downloadable package direct from the App Store. £180 is a hell of an investment and one of the most expensive packages I have seen Apple offering in recent months.
This isn't the first step that Apple have taken in trying to kill off expensive in store boxed set software package deals. While £180 seems like a massive amount of money to spend, the high end video application used to cost £835. Why the price cut? Well, Apple are bundling some other ‘optional' extras in the store, at additional cost. With Motion 5 and Compressor 4 also offered at £30 each, the cost is still much less than the previous versions.
Apple are trying to drive the Macintosh sales into the video editing market. Apple's Phil Schiller feels positive about the new software saying “Final Cut Pro X is the biggest advance in Pro video editing since the original Final Cut Pro. We have shown it to many of the world’s best Pro editors, and their jaws have dropped.”
Unfortunately for Apple, the comments on their store page aren't quite so positive. Professional editors are saying it is iMovie on steroids and that it doesn't do what they need anymore. With an overall score right now of 3 out of 5, it appears that Apple might not be releasing what the public need.
Users complain of removed functionality and a lack of support for some serious editing demands. We would hate to say its a ‘dumbed down' version, but the customer views certainly might be explaining why the price has dropped so sharply with the current release.
Kitguru says: Are you happy with spending £200 for online packages with no box art and printed manual? share your views
My friend is up in arms about this latest version./ not happy at all and he logged a complaint with Apple about getting a refund.
I, on the other hand, love this new version. It is relatively cheap, with just what I need to step up from iMovie 11. In a year, when the yelling dies down, and after Apple replaces some of the Pro features that aren’t in this first version, I suspect the reviews will be much more positive.
I do agree that Apple might well consider putting a series of video tutorials on its site, to help people make a purchase decision. But I have no doubt this will be an iMovie 08 to iMovie 11 thing…that is, time will prove this to be a master stroke by Apple.
It is also interesting to me that the Pros get to dictate the tone of the conversation,, while we prosumers are the main users of video editing software and FCPX is great for us. Hugh
For me, its perfect, however I can see how it would annoy some experts. I was actually reading the comments a few days ago before buying it, and nothing they were complaiinng about I need.
It looks like a restructuring for the product for more mass market consumption. with the price drop it certainly makes sense.