Yes, you heard it right folks. There is going to be an update to Final Cut Studio, and it will be ‘early next year’ according to an email reply from Steve Jobs. Dustyn Gobler, a television post-production consultant, sent an email to Jobs expressing his frustration over the lack of a development roadmap for Final Cut, Apple’s pro video editing and post-production application.
Steve’s terse reply according to Gobler? “A great release of Final Cut is coming early next year.”
Gobler’s frustration is understandable. As a consultant to studios, Gobler must advise clients on which software and hardware package to buy, understanding that this is a big investment and that it is an entire workflow system that you’re buying into. Apple’s lack of a roadmap for its Pro Applications makes it difficult for companies to make decisions as to which software to buy. And when you consider that production companies must invest tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars into both the software and the hardware, it’s only natural that they would be cautious.
Rumours about Final Cut Pro being dumbed down or even killed off were swirling as early as May, when AppleInsider reported that Apple was gearing Final Cut Pro towards prosumers. At that time, Steve Jobs reportedly replied, “Don’t believe everything you read. The next release will be kickass.” Apple released an official statement saying, “The next version of Final Cut is going to be awesome, and our pro customers are going to love it.” Reassuring, if not illuminating.
Gobler in his letter makes a good point, which is that while secrecy builds product anticipation among consumer products, when it comes to the Pro Application suite, secrecy only causes fear and uncertainty. Professional users need these tools and rely on them to get work done. No one wants to make a major investment in an editing suite and then find that Apple is no longer going to develop it, or that its feature set or workflow will be changing drastically and will lead to a slowdown in production.
If Apple wants to keep its Final Cut Pro userbase from jumping ship to Avid Media Composer, or Adobe Premiere, being more transparent about ongoing support for the platform and about the future direction for the software would go a long way towards assuaging the concerns of professional users.
Article Via TUAW
