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Apple Refocusing Final Cut Pro? Jobs says "Next Release Will Be Awesome"

Tuesday May 18, 2010 7:04 pm PDT by Arnold Kim

Apple is said to be revamping their Final Cut Pro product to appeal to a more mainstream audience rather than high end professionals. After layoffs in 2007, Apple has reportedly reorganized the Final Cut Pro team under the lead of Randy Ubillos, the developer who completely redesigned iMovie in 2008. The new iMovie was drastic departure from the original iMovie codebase.

According to a report from AppleInsider, the goal of the new Final Cut Pro is to make it "more appealing and useful to the needs of prosumers".

Currently, Final Cut Pro is targeted at advanced professionals with a scaled down, less expensive Final Cut Express version sold to users who don't need all of its high end features. Because Apple now primarily sells the Express version, the company wants to rethink Final Cut Studio and scale its overall development to better fit the majority of its customers.

Steve Jobs was recently questioned about the fate of Final Cut Pro. MacSoda sent an email to Jobs asking about layoffs and the future of the application. Jobs replied:

We certainly do [care about Pro apps]. Folks who left were in support, not engineering. Next release will be awesome.

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NewSc2
23 months ago
What about Logic? That's a "pro app."

EDIT: nm, Steve Jobs's e-mail refers to Final Cut Pro.
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kockgunner
23 months ago
They better not dumb down the application like iMovie '08. What about the Pros who rely on Final Cut Pro? Would they be forced to downgrade to a prosumer version? It seems like Apple is not focusing more on prosumers than actual pros, evidenced by what's happening to the Macbook Pro line.
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meli
23 months ago

Apple has reportedly reorganized the Final Cut Pro team under the lead of Randy Ubillos, the developer who completely redesigned iMovie in 2008.


I've got a bad feeling about this.
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neonRing
23 months ago
yikes.

they've spent all this time developing FCP into a pro-level app, and taken a sizable chunk of the market from Avid... and now they want to make imovie again? what an odd decision.

seems like making something "prosumer" is a great way to lose your "professional" users. just out of professional pride, i would think. no one is cutting hollywood movies on vegas, ya know?

seems like it would be smarter to make imovie more robust, rather than down-market FCP.
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FarFromSubtle
23 months ago
This is great news. It is unlikely Apple will strip out pro features and effectively neuter the program. Instead, it sounds like they plan to increase the usability of FCP to make it more approachable to a broader range of users. As someone who spends 10-14 hours a day with the finicky beast, this can only be a good thing.
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ericmooreart
23 months ago
Make it better but Don't dumbed down? I don't wanna see templates with lens flares, hearts and gradient backgrounds or any kind of video wizard. "Pro" is in the name for a reason
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alent1234
23 months ago
Explains the lack of a mac pro refresh
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Goaliegeek
23 months ago
SWEET! I can't wait for it now. Hopefully it will be 64bit and really powerful. I emailed Jobs a little bit back about FCP, but never got anything back. I'm a media and video production student and hopefully the next FCS will be epic (and cheaper)
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Ed A.
23 months ago

They better not dumb down the application like iMovie '08. What about the Pros who rely on Final Cut Pro? Would they be forced to downgrade to a prosumer version? It seems like Apple is not focusing more on prosumers than actual pros, evidenced by what's happening to the Macbook Pro line.


I'm a certified FCP editor and if they dumb down FCP, I'm going Avid.
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michaelflynn
23 months ago
Not feeling good about this. Apple has been ignoring FCP and the needs of pro users for awhile now. I make my living using FCP and to hear them say that they basically want to dumb it down is not good.
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