Re: Working Over the weekend...

Oliver, your comment is key to my speculations regarding Apple's direction.

I think there are people here who aren't taking into account the economic climate in business as well as production/post production.

Regardless of whether my specifics as to what replaces the MacPro are, as a business model for a hardware manufacturer, lower cost/priced and more frequently upgraded machines are a reasonable target. Making towers that people upgrade once every 3-5 years is a recipe for declining sales.

I think people have to take a serious look at Avid's situation and Adobe and Apple (which have very different business models) and see why some companies do well and others are in trouble.

There was a time when the "Pro" market spend "Pro" dollars for equipment and $60,000 dollars and up for an NLE and $20,000 for an upgrade were profitable to serve that market. Look at the response to the cost of the Pro Tools HD upgrade and see why Avid is in a financial bind . . . and has been for years.

"Pros" want what they want and they claim they'll pay a bit more, but it's not enough more for financial viability for the developers and the facilities that pay the bills and are struggling to lower overhead to compete against very talented "laptop editors" are looking to cut costs.

I think Apple has the right idea. As to whether the idea is well executed might be a different story, but I think they understand what they need to grow. Avid is still trying to figure it out.

Adobe is trying to expand in the NLE market. After Effects success is, in part, it does a lot for a low cost tool compared the more expensive competitors. I'm not sure what the real value Premiere is to their overall product line but one thing they do have in common with Apple, is that Adobe is about developing an ecosystem.

Apple though is a company that makes software and provides services with the goal to sell hardware. The hardware market has changed significantly due to economic changes in production and post.