Re: One year later...

[Andrew Kimery] "Some have mentioned maybe Blackmagic would buy Avid, but I don't see that as much of an improvement. If BM bought Avid would Avid then only work w/BM cards? Isn't that basically the same path that many say is dooming Avid now?"

But BM apparently has a functioning business model. Is DaVinci sales hurting or helping BM's hardware sales? I think BMs hardware pricing and direction lend themselves to wide use. That's not the case with Avid. When Avid limited hardware use with MC/Symphony the choices were expensive. Some thought overpriced for the features. I don't think DaVinci users feel that way about BM's Video I/O. I don't think ATEM users feel that way about their hardware switchers. On the other hand many ProTools users were livid at the cost of the hardware upgrade.

Actually I think BM and Avid is a very good comparison between a viable hardware business model and one that isn't in the long run. Avid also is very upmarket in its hardware whereas BM tries to be broadmarket (affordable).

BM is willing to be daring by entering new markets very aggressively. They did it with DaVinci. They're doing it with their Digital Cinema Camera. Avid? Well they did come out with a neat iPad Video Editor. I'm not sure how the revenue for that works for a hardware company or the upsale from that to Symphony with Isis. Meanwhile BM has a free lite (and really not all that lite) version of DaVinci Resolve and they give away the full version with the camera. BM's moves probably do a better job of the upsale both in software and hardware. Even their camera is geared to sell their color grading workflow given the choice of codec they used.