Re: macbook air and fcpx- the new portable edit suite

[Walter Soyka] "I don't think a lack of imagination or creativity is the problem here -- I think it's a lack of trust. Apple seriously damaged their credibility with the launch of FCPX. Given this, can you really blame people for wanting to see before they believe?"

Different issue then I was addressing but certainly an issue none the less.

Some people are criticizing the feature set or the direction they're taking.

Others are criticizing the introduction of the product. I wont argue that. I think the lack of transition as Apple had done with OS9 to OSX or PPC to Intel is a big business mistake. Even if FCS3 continued for sale with only maintenance releases while FCPX was developed, a lot of facilities wouldn't have been backed into a corner. I still suspect there's an "unseen" business issue they faced but, if that was the case, it still was handled poorly as far as the end user is concerned.

[Walter Soyka] "Adobe's Lightroom (offering similar functionality with a more traditional media management model) caught up to Aperture in no time, then quickly surpassed it in some regards."

And the same may happen with regards to FCPX feature set. It does seem like Apple is moving relatively quickly with FCPX but there's a lot of "catch up" involved in this case. Aperture wasn't catching up with anything that I know of whereas FCPX is catching up with both FCP7 and the competitors.


[Walter Soyka] "It could be that FCPX is part of a developing ecosystem, or it could end up being the video version of Aperture: a cool and quirky in-between application with loads of untapped potential. We'll all know more as it matures."

Personally I think Apple has much more motivation behind FCPX than Aperture but we'll have a better picture at the speed and feature set of subsequent updates. I don't think Apple intended Aperture to sell hardware so much as to be a professional iPhoto (unfortunately). I do think FCPX is being designed to sell new hardware. Of course I have no idea if that will be executed successfully but I do think the intent and motivation behind FCPX is different than Aperture.