Avid went chapter 11 because of it. They fired their entire management team, reorganized the company, and brought back all of the programs they had either stopped making for the Mac, or had never made for the Mac.
I've never heard of this? When did they go bankrupt?
The only Avid app that I as a home user am interested in seeing come back to the Mac is Avid Cinema, a fine digital video editing program that came pre-installed on some Macs in the pre-iMovie days years ago. It had some features I still miss.
By the end of 2007 there will only be 2X as many PPC Macs than there are Intel Macs
By the end of 2008 there will only be as many PPC Macs than there are Intel Macs
Also folks who are running high end systems are always looking for the latest and greatest systems.
So are they going to stick with the dual G5 or 8-core Intel solution?
Ok, back to this.
It doesn't really matter what the ratio is. What matters, is which machines will be used.
No current high end Avid solution will work on any Mac other than the Powermacs. So it doesn't matter how many Mini's, Powerbooks, iBooks, iMacs, MacBooks, or MacBook Pros there are out there.
The only one that will run on another Mac is Express. That is their lowest end solution.
Right now, the ratio between the Powermac and the Mac Pro is probably 100 to 1. Possibly even greater.
But in the Avid market it's infinity (damn, the symbol doesn't work here. Fix that guys!). No current Mac Avid user uses an Intel Mac Pro!
But, it doesn't matter.
For the reasons I gave above, earlier, Avid customers will be buying Intel Mac Pros to run these (high end) programs. They will have to, because the programs will only run on them. And, they will want to, because of the major performance increase.
They will want to run Express on an Intel machine as well, for the same reason.
It's that simple.
Ratios don't mean a thing. They will change soon enough.
Still, right now, there are still about 4x as many PPC Macs than there are Intel Macs.
And that ratio is shrinking every day. Also, this is a beta and by the time the final version ships, there will be more intel use and less PPC. If something already runs on PPC, it makes sense to keep it, but it probably only makes sense to support PPC if doing so is relatively simple.
Still, right now, there are still about 4x as many PPC Macs than there are Intel Macs.
I just heard that tomorrow, Jobs will announce that Leopard will be Intel only and Apple will unleash a campaign to get people to upgrade they systems by announcing that anyone still using PPCs is a "poppie head".
I'm not a programmer, but I don't understand why these new releases aren't universal. There are still a lot of PPC Macs out there.
The biggest misconception is that if there are xxx million or YYY times more of one product, that's the market you hit. The reality is that you want to target your products at people who are going to BUY them. There still could be 5 million non-OS X users out there; however, my guess is that VERY few are buying any new products. There are a lot of PPC users out there; however, my guess is that since they haven't upgraded to an Intel box, they also aren't actively updating their software (as a general rule). The Intel users have already proven that they'll pay for something new; THEY are most likely to buy something new. I have seen stats from some vendors (via their programmers) for OSes -- if their installed base is 80% OS 10.3 and 20% OS 10.4, 90 % of their upgrades are sold to the 10.4 customers.
So it could very well be that from Avid's perspective, 90% of their (Mac) customer base is PPC; howver, they expect to sell 90% of their products to Intel customers. Many customers are waiting to switch to Mac Pros until Avid switches, so although they currently own a PPC machine, they'll upgrade along with Avid to an Intel machine. Given that % and that they may already have optimizations for Intel on their Windows side that they can now move over, an Intel-only version takes less resources to make. With a high end product like Avid, optimizations/making it fast is (probably) an important part of their development process.
All that said, it usually isn't too much of a big deal to keep PPC around (as universal). Not reading things too carefully, maybe the BETA is being released Intel-only (for the above reasons), but the final product might be universal? They might be testing the waters on this?
Let's understand something here. Avid Express Pro is the ONLY program from Avid that the FCP Suite competes with.
The only one.
The rest of Avid's offerings are way above FCP's abilities. Apple simply doesn't compete in that space.
Will they? Maybe. Video editing is one of the few places where a newcomer can get a solid toehold in, if they have a better solution.
But, even then, it wouldn't be easy for Apple.
And Avid Express Pro has kept up with FCP, and competes well, even though FCP does sell more copies.
I know there are some chauvinistic people here who can't imagine that anything done by any other company than Apple could be good.
But, that would be wrong.
You're pretty much right; but even Avid Express is still better than FCP, and for many reasons. For one, Avid is much more efficient, because you can do everything on the keyboard, without having to fuss with your mouse all the time. Secondly, while the cost is a real bitch, the add-on hardware can really help.
For the money, FCP is certainly the best solution, which is why it is the software of choice for most indie films. But when you've got deadlines to meet, and people to impress, it's all about Avid. I'm very excited to hear that it will finally be available for the Intel Macs; I was not looking forward to having to run it on Vista with the whole dual-booting thing, since it seems somewhat unstable on the HP's at my school.
I just heard that tomorrow, Jobs will announce that Leopard will be Intel only and Apple will unleash a campaign to get people to upgrade they systems by announcing that anyone still using PPCs is a "poppie head".
Funny...but Jobs has already committed to Leopard for PPC. It's a done deal.
I predict that Avid will pull from the Apple market within a year. I can't recall, but isn't the next generation Motion due next Spring-- an expected huge leap forward? FCP will be, too.
Avid sells around 60% of its high end professional products to Mac users. So no this will not happen.
Quote:
Avid went chapter 11 because of it. They fired their entire management team, reorganized the company, and brought back all of the programs they had either stopped making for the Mac, or had never made for the Mac.
I've never heard of this? When did they go bankrupt?
Mel is right Avid was in real trouble and had to restructure the company. Just in November it was reported that Pro Tools sales began to slow because they are not offering Intel software fast enough.
All that said, it usually isn't too much of a big deal to keep PPC around (as universal). Not reading things too carefully, maybe the BETA is being released Intel-only (for the above reasons), but the final product might be universal? They might be testing the waters on this…
It actually is a big deal. They would need almost double the programmers to upgrade the program. Then they have to keep the two versions synchronized.
Double the support, as personnel would have to know problems on both platforms, etc.
If a big part of the customer base could be expected to remain on the old platform for a while, it might pay, but they won't, so it doesn't.
Double the testing, sure. Maybe one or two additional programmers if they wished to keep someone around to target Altivec.
No. The entire program has to be upgraded. That takes the full team. Moving to Intel takes more than the full team because they have to convert to X Code. After that, the Intel team could shrink, but the PPC team would have to remain the same.
If they decide that it is the last upgrade, then the PPC team could shrink to whatever it takes to do updates, support, etc. But not before the new version is out.
It also takes cooperation between the two teams to make sure they are coordinated. That takes additional personnel.
I predict that Avid will pull from the Apple market within a year. I can't recall, but isn't the next generation Motion due next Spring-- an expected huge leap forward? FCP will be, too.
Avid is bye-bye.
Ok first of all FCP is designed by programers, and avid is designed and made for hard core professional editors. FCP is for more of free lancing but when you start talking about broadcasting and movies, Avid will always be the domonate program FOREVER
Comments
Avid went chapter 11 because of it. They fired their entire management team, reorganized the company, and brought back all of the programs they had either stopped making for the Mac, or had never made for the Mac.
I've never heard of this? When did they go bankrupt?
I've never heard of this? When did they go bankrupt?
I don't remember exactly when.
I looked it up in Wickipedia, but, as usual, the information is woefully imcomplete (much more serious with their defs then the errors that creep in).
The first 10 Google pages have nothing useful either.
NASDAQ had charts going back ten years. According to that, it could have been around 2001.
By the end of 2007 there will only be 2X as many PPC Macs than there are Intel Macs
By the end of 2008 there will only be as many PPC Macs than there are Intel Macs
Also folks who are running high end systems are always looking for the latest and greatest systems.
So are they going to stick with the dual G5 or 8-core Intel solution?
Ok, back to this.
It doesn't really matter what the ratio is. What matters, is which machines will be used.
No current high end Avid solution will work on any Mac other than the Powermacs. So it doesn't matter how many Mini's, Powerbooks, iBooks, iMacs, MacBooks, or MacBook Pros there are out there.
The only one that will run on another Mac is Express. That is their lowest end solution.
Right now, the ratio between the Powermac and the Mac Pro is probably 100 to 1. Possibly even greater.
But in the Avid market it's infinity (damn, the symbol doesn't work here. Fix that guys!). No current Mac Avid user uses an Intel Mac Pro!
But, it doesn't matter.
For the reasons I gave above, earlier, Avid customers will be buying Intel Mac Pros to run these (high end) programs. They will have to, because the programs will only run on them. And, they will want to, because of the major performance increase.
They will want to run Express on an Intel machine as well, for the same reason.
It's that simple.
Ratios don't mean a thing. They will change soon enough.
Still, right now, there are still about 4x as many PPC Macs than there are Intel Macs.
And that ratio is shrinking every day. Also, this is a beta and by the time the final version ships, there will be more intel use and less PPC. If something already runs on PPC, it makes sense to keep it, but it probably only makes sense to support PPC if doing so is relatively simple.
Still, right now, there are still about 4x as many PPC Macs than there are Intel Macs.
I just heard that tomorrow, Jobs will announce that Leopard will be Intel only and Apple will unleash a campaign to get people to upgrade they systems by announcing that anyone still using PPCs is a "poppie head".
I don't make this stuff up, I just pass it on.
I'm not a programmer, but I don't understand why these new releases aren't universal. There are still a lot of PPC Macs out there.
The biggest misconception is that if there are xxx million or YYY times more of one product, that's the market you hit. The reality is that you want to target your products at people who are going to BUY them. There still could be 5 million non-OS X users out there; however, my guess is that VERY few are buying any new products. There are a lot of PPC users out there; however, my guess is that since they haven't upgraded to an Intel box, they also aren't actively updating their software (as a general rule). The Intel users have already proven that they'll pay for something new; THEY are most likely to buy something new. I have seen stats from some vendors (via their programmers) for OSes -- if their installed base is 80% OS 10.3 and 20% OS 10.4, 90 % of their upgrades are sold to the 10.4 customers.
So it could very well be that from Avid's perspective, 90% of their (Mac) customer base is PPC; howver, they expect to sell 90% of their products to Intel customers. Many customers are waiting to switch to Mac Pros until Avid switches, so although they currently own a PPC machine, they'll upgrade along with Avid to an Intel machine. Given that % and that they may already have optimizations for Intel on their Windows side that they can now move over, an Intel-only version takes less resources to make. With a high end product like Avid, optimizations/making it fast is (probably) an important part of their development process.
All that said, it usually isn't too much of a big deal to keep PPC around (as universal). Not reading things too carefully, maybe the BETA is being released Intel-only (for the above reasons), but the final product might be universal? They might be testing the waters on this?
Let's understand something here. Avid Express Pro is the ONLY program from Avid that the FCP Suite competes with.
The only one.
The rest of Avid's offerings are way above FCP's abilities. Apple simply doesn't compete in that space.
Will they? Maybe. Video editing is one of the few places where a newcomer can get a solid toehold in, if they have a better solution.
But, even then, it wouldn't be easy for Apple.
And Avid Express Pro has kept up with FCP, and competes well, even though FCP does sell more copies.
I know there are some chauvinistic people here who can't imagine that anything done by any other company than Apple could be good.
But, that would be wrong.
You're pretty much right; but even Avid Express is still better than FCP, and for many reasons. For one, Avid is much more efficient, because you can do everything on the keyboard, without having to fuss with your mouse all the time. Secondly, while the cost is a real bitch, the add-on hardware can really help.
For the money, FCP is certainly the best solution, which is why it is the software of choice for most indie films. But when you've got deadlines to meet, and people to impress, it's all about Avid. I'm very excited to hear that it will finally be available for the Intel Macs; I was not looking forward to having to run it on Vista with the whole dual-booting thing, since it seems somewhat unstable on the HP's at my school.
I just heard that tomorrow, Jobs will announce that Leopard will be Intel only and Apple will unleash a campaign to get people to upgrade they systems by announcing that anyone still using PPCs is a "poppie head".
Funny...but Jobs has already committed to Leopard for PPC. It's a done deal.
I predict that Avid will pull from the Apple market within a year. I can't recall, but isn't the next generation Motion due next Spring-- an expected huge leap forward? FCP will be, too.
Avid sells around 60% of its high end professional products to Mac users. So no this will not happen.
Avid went chapter 11 because of it. They fired their entire management team, reorganized the company, and brought back all of the programs they had either stopped making for the Mac, or had never made for the Mac.
I've never heard of this? When did they go bankrupt?
Mel is right Avid was in real trouble and had to restructure the company. Just in November it was reported that Pro Tools sales began to slow because they are not offering Intel software fast enough.
Funny...but Jobs has already committed to Leopard for PPC. It's a done deal.
I think he was kidding.
All that said, it usually isn't too much of a big deal to keep PPC around (as universal). Not reading things too carefully, maybe the BETA is being released Intel-only (for the above reasons), but the final product might be universal? They might be testing the waters on this…
It actually is a big deal. They would need almost double the programmers to upgrade the program. Then they have to keep the two versions synchronized.
Double the support, as personnel would have to know problems on both platforms, etc.
If a big part of the customer base could be expected to remain on the old platform for a while, it might pay, but they won't, so it doesn't.
It actually is a big deal. They would need almost double the programmers to upgrade the program. Then they have to keep the two versions synchronized.
No they wouldn't.
Double the testing, sure. Maybe one or two additional programmers if they wished to keep someone around to target Altivec.
No they wouldn't.
Double the testing, sure. Maybe one or two additional programmers if they wished to keep someone around to target Altivec.
No. The entire program has to be upgraded. That takes the full team. Moving to Intel takes more than the full team because they have to convert to X Code. After that, the Intel team could shrink, but the PPC team would have to remain the same.
If they decide that it is the last upgrade, then the PPC team could shrink to whatever it takes to do updates, support, etc. But not before the new version is out.
It also takes cooperation between the two teams to make sure they are coordinated. That takes additional personnel.
I predict that Avid will pull from the Apple market within a year. I can't recall, but isn't the next generation Motion due next Spring-- an expected huge leap forward? FCP will be, too.
Avid is bye-bye.
Ok first of all FCP is designed by programers, and avid is designed and made for hard core professional editors. FCP is for more of free lancing but when you start talking about broadcasting and movies, Avid will always be the domonate program FOREVER