Rumor that Apple will sell Final Cut & Pro Apps

[Tico Llaurador]

There have been plenty of talk in the past about Apple spinning off its entire Pro division into a company proper to direct 100% of its attention to service that industry sector in particular (just like it did with FileMaker). If I recall correctly, the last time I heard that was when they completed the purchase of the last remaining commercial property in Cupertino, a couple of years ago. Never heard of it again.

Bottom line is, I wouldn't be surprised if they did spin it off into a company of its own. As opposed to selling its pro apps to another. That wouldn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

I am not guessing here.. I said what I said with 100% confidence.

What's the big deal? I mean look at the price point vs R&D the buying of other technologies, and that the proapps are what cause 90% of macs hardware headaches.

OF COURSE they think of selling it. But the real question is, when it comes down to it, WILL THEY?

The only buyer who could really get a hold of it would be Microsoft, and Jobs would sooner pound his own nuts flat with a wooden mallet.

From a consumer side, selling FCP would be the best thing that has ever happened.

Just think:

Can use other wrappers, not just brain dead QT
The platform would open up to make it faster for 3rd parties.
PC and Mac compatible.

Adobe would be the best to sell it too, but it would cost them Premiere so that will not happen.

Can't really think of a good buyer, the boldest move would be AVID but they would have to restructure their business model.

Oh well... Whatever

Jay

 

[Videoteque73]

It doesn't seem to me that Apple loves it's ProApps division too much, they seem rather slow and unpowered respect what I think it should be.

Should someone else buy them, products prices would increase and not by little... :cold: :cold: but maybe they would be more competitive and quick in the developement cycles. Someone has writen that pro apps has a 2 or 3 years cycle, it seems like an eternity for me. 3 years ago there wasn' a Red and neither HDV??

Color is a clear example. They bought it, they put it inside Final Cut Studio. Full stop. At least they could have changed the interface to a more Apple one... :sarcasm:

 

[M.Halsell]

But to Apple's credit, they have cobbled together a solid set of applications within the suite. Particularly at that price point. Probably no other vendor provides the same product of equal value. This hidden cost of the software is the purchase of the hardware to use it on.

It does seem Apple internal process is to 'lift' entire development teams for use on hotter or more pressing projects. If FCS is sold on the auction block it probably can be easily polished up nicely by an excited new owner and probably ported to the other "OS" that we all know and love. Apple does have to answer to it's shareholders at the end of the day. Thankfully, RED does not at this time. Thank GOD!

Although, I do feel Apple's committment to Quicktime is important. It is still a very robust delivery system, despite it's imperfections.

But I am very excited that RED is show aggressive support on the software side. They have given us for free 'a baby Scratch' that is still 1.x. It shows alot of forward thinking. RED seems very interested in providing a complete 'turnkey solution' across the board.

We are really taking for granted the leaps and bounds RED has made despite the humble beginnings.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.

 

[mikeburton]

What about Phenomenon? If Apple is selling off their ProApps Phenomenon (the new compositing application to take the place of SHAKE) would be gone as well. We all know that Apple bought, then discontinued SHAKE to start working on an entirely new Professional Compositing APP (Phenomenon). Interesting to see how this all plays out.

 

[Dj Joofa]

From a consumer side, selling FCP would be the best thing that has ever happened.

Just think:

Can use other wrappers, not just brain dead QT

Jay

FCP is not tied to Quicktime when reading a file. The internal organization of a Quicktime movie in memory when read-in is in a "moov" format, as it is called. However, any file format wrappers (non-Quicktime) can be loaded into FCP if you have the right QT component for it. QT Component is an open source SDK and anybody can write a new non-Quicktime wrapper, and not just new wrapper, but any new codec to that wrapper also anytime, that FCP shall be able to load.

BTW QT is not brain-dead. In addition to the QT architecture, the QT file format is quite advanced -- MPEG-4 committee took a subset of it and appropriated for the MPEG-4 container standardization.

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

I think its time for me to build a Hackintosh..

Use Skull Trail.

 

[David Birdy]

I heard the same rumor a month ago...but have NO confirmation.

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

What about Phenomenon? If Apple is selling off their ProApps Phenomenon (the new compositing application to take the place of SHAKE) would be gone as well. We all know that Apple bought, then discontinued SHAKE to start working on an entirely new Professional Compositing APP (Phenomenon). Interesting to see how this all plays out.

Ahhhh .... we all "know"?
Please tell me how you got ANY information about a project called "phenomenon" other than retarded mac fan rumor sites?

I will say this one more time ... there is no "Phenomenon".

Please show me your ... Apple "Asteroid".

Get over it and buy a NUKE license.

 

[Bruce Allen]

Ahhhh .... we all "know"?
Please tell me how you got ANY information about a project called "phenomenon" other than retarded mac fan rumor sites?

I will say this one more time ... there is no "Phenomenon".

Please show me your ... Apple "Asteroid".

Get over it and buy a NUKE license.

Someone on the Apple Shake listserve forwarded an LONG email from "Louis Cetorelli - Manager, Shake Support".

It contained the following quote:

"Apple will no longer be selling maintenance for Shake and no further software updates are planned as we begin work on the NEXT GENERATION OF SHAKE COMPOSITING SOFTWARE. While we're excited about the innovations we can bring in the future, we understand you have a business to run today that requires Shake."

http://www.fxshare.com/shake/list_servers/shake_list/archive/9604.html

EMPHASIS MINE.

So, at the time of Shake 4.1, they were beginning work on it. Whether it has been cancelled or not is not known. But they did see fit to keep employing Ron Brinkmann for a couple years until he quite to go to The Foundry to work on Nuke.

Maybe the successor to Shake wasn't called Phenomenon? Either way, they seemed to be working on *some successor*... Offhollywood, you're a fellow in the know - care to shed any light?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[Dylan Reeve]

For what it's worth, if it did go to Thomson (/GrassValley/Canopus) I think it could be a good thing. Their existing leading NLE (Edius) currently has better 'weird format' support than any other NLE around. It will capture Varicam at 50Hz framerates over Firewire with audio (nothing else can do that). It supports all flavours of HDV. The new XDCAM EX format. It's got great format support. It's just not a great editor. They've certainly got some good coders in house.

If it does change hands, I really like the new owners to take a good long look at some of the more fundamental functions. Media management, I/O, etc...

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

So, at the time of Shake 4.1, they were beginning work on it. Whether it has been cancelled or not is not known. But they did see fit to keep employing Ron Brinkmann for a couple years until he quite to go to The Foundry to work on Nuke.

Maybe the successor to Shake wasn't called Phenomenon? Either way, they seemed to be working on *some successor*... Offhollywood, you're a fellow in the know - care to shed any light?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

Bruce -

I believe the future of compositing on the Mac platform is NUKE.

I believe Apple is putting all of their compositing resources into MOTION.

I believe Ron Brinkmann left for a reason.

 

[Mark Allen]

One thing about rumors like this is it's very often true that certain things are being discussed and considered. But at ANY corporation, a ton of ideas are discussed all - the - time. They have to do that - they have to evaluate all their options and strategize. But, they weigh many factors and the majority of the time, things don't change that drastically - and usually when they do - it's really sudden with no time for a rumor.

I think they feed their consumer iLife products with technology from their pro-apps.

Note something about Logic. It took FOREVER to get a Logic upgrade to 8. So long that people started to think Apple had abandoned Logic. Lots of rumors about them just using Soundtrack pro in the future. Then... Logic 8 comes out and it's just an incredible update. It really took a lot of user input into consideration and so many details were changed for the better.... so... you know... you never know.

I think it's always good to stay aware of what's going on in the media world - but even if something drastic happened, you'd find another solution - these are just the tools. That said - I don't think FCP is going anywhere - it's earned way too much saturation - no one would throw that away.

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

One thing about rumors like this is it's very often true that certain things are being discussed and considered. But at ANY corporation, a ton of ideas are discussed all - the - time. They have to do that - they have to evaluate all their options and strategize. But, they weigh many factors and the majority of the time, things don't change that drastically - and usually when they do - it's really sudden with no time for a rumor.

I think they feed their consumer iLife products with technology from their pro-apps.

Note something about Logic. It took FOREVER to get a Logic upgrade to 8. So long that people started to think Apple had abandoned Logic. Lots of rumors about them just using Soundtrack pro in the future. Then... Logic 8 comes out and it's just an incredible update. It really took a lot of user input into consideration and so many details were changed for the better.... so... you know... you never know.

I think it's always good to stay aware of what's going on in the media world - but even if something drastic happened, you'd find another solution - these are just the tools. That said - I don't think FCP is going anywhere - it's earned way too much saturation - no one would throw that away.

Great post. 100% agree. And yes, Logic 8 is fantastic.

 

[David Dennis]

Final Cut Pro, Logic and Aperture are selling a heck of a lot of 8-core Mac Pros, and not the cheapest models, either.

I think if you lose the pro apps, you lose a lot of that profit, and I don't think Steve would be keen on that. After all, he just released an extremely competitive upgrade of the Mac Pro, and I'd be really shocked if he didn't want to control the software we use on it.

And there is synergy between the pro apps and their lesser cousins. Not so much with Final Cut Pro, but GarageBand uses the same file format as Logic and is probably very similar internally. As another example, shortly after Aperture came out, iMovie developed heads up displays that were in a similar format to Aperture's.

Finally, I think the best way to launch the successor company would be for it to buy up Apple's space at NAB and do the announcement there where there would be enormous buzz and interest in their future plans.

Come to think of it, do we know who bought up Apple's booth at pretty much the last minute? I think they said they sold the space, just not who bought it.

I think it's far more likely, however, that they didn't buy the space simply because Avid didn't. They were following Avid's lead with no new version of Final Cut Studio to announce. I'm sure they will be back when there is something new.

Besides, it was just leaving more attention to you guys at Red, right? For all I know, you bought their space to showcase Scarlet .

D

 

[Seán_T]

Bruce -

I believe the future of compositing on the Mac platform is NUKE.

I believe Apple is putting all of their compositing resources into MOTION.

I believe Ron Brinkmann left for a reason.

I'd say your bang on on every point. And speaking to a few shake artist they say pretty much the same thing, their all learning Nuke.

I was always quite disappointed with the progress apple made on shake when they bought it, they gave it quicktime support and better audio and a few other incremental improvements and that was it. Oh and they dropped the windows version.
But it could have been worse, they bought silicon grail to kill off a competitor (RAYZ/chalice). Much like autodesk did with the great 5D Cyborg.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Actually Apples current active crippling of Shake as it is, gives me some hope they're preparing the road for "shake 5"/phenomenon.

Why else would they restrict renders in leopard to 4 cores and destroy the high bitrate outputs from shake (it's not really gone yet, just quickly sneaking towards the exit)

I really have come to like Shakes approach to what it does...

Gunleik
(Who don't mind Nuke. Would just like not to learn another package...)

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

I'd say your bang on on every point. And speaking to a few shake artist they say pretty much the same thing, their all learning Nuke.
.

The Foundry is a great company and it's even better that they took care of Nuke. Shake without The Foundry Furnace has just a third of its potential. I stopped investing into Furnace 3 for Shake since Apple discontinued developing Shake as a host.

I'll wait until The Foundry shows a new version of Nuke that will take advantage of the GPU. It is pure speculation but NAB 2008 might be interesting in this regard. Furnace needs a new host for OS X.

Hans

 

[Seán_T]

Actually Apples current active crippling of Shake as it is, gives me some hope they're preparing the road for "shake 5"/phenomenon.

Why else would they restrict renders in leopard to 4 cores and destroy the high bitrate outputs from shake (it's not really gone yet, just quickly sneaking towards the exit)

I really have come to like Shakes approach to what it does...

Gunleik
(Who don't mind Nuke. Would just like not to learn another package...)

Regardless of what happens your going to have to learn a new package. Well you could use shake for a long time to come and be fine, but to stay current you'll have to learn something new.

I doubt apple is actively crippling shake, its just called "being unsupported"