Adobe sees 45% sales growth for Mac video tools after Final Cut X exodus

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Adobe announced 45 percent growth year over year for its video creation tools on the Mac on Thursday, driven in part by switchers dissatisfied with Apple's controversial Final Cut Pro X.



The software company saw 22 percent growth in demand for its video editing software across all platforms, as noted by The Loop. Adobe attributed some of the Mac-specific growth to significant numbers of Final Cut Pro X users who have switched to the company's Premier Pro.



Apple released Final Cut Pro X on the Mac App Store in June, receiving an instantly polarized reaction from consumers and professionals. Though some have praised the update for bringing revolutionary advancements to the video editing platform, others have criticized it for its lack of backwards compatibility and missing features.



The Cupertino, Calif., company has promised to add the missing features in a future update, while also offering refunds on the software and even resuming sales of Final Cut Studio.



As complaints over Final Cut Pro X grew this summer, Adobe began an aggressive push to attract customers to its Premiere Pro software. The company even launched a "switcher program" that offered a 50 percent discount to users who had previously purchased Final Cut Pro or Avid Media composer.



Adobe has setup a dedicated website with information for interested switchers. The site's tagline "You're a pro. Make sure your toolset is too," appears to be a dig at Final Cut Pro X, which has been accused by some industry professionals as not being a "pro" application.







AppleInsider was first to report last year that Apple planned to scale down its Final Cut Studio suite to better fit the needs of prosumers. The company quickly issued a statement in response, promising that professional customers would "love" the new version of Final Cut.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 84
    tylerk36tylerk36 Posts: 1,037member
    Ok. If it's not broken don't fix it. Maybe an interface revision for FC 10.1. Seriously!
  • Reply 2 of 84
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    Apple pulled a funny on FC. It reminded me of the switch from iMovie (HD?) to the new iMovie 08 if memory serves me correctly. Those that lived through this will know what I am talking about. I kept that old version till 09 and was not fully satisfied till 11.



    I think it may take apple a few versions before people who left come back to FC.
  • Reply 3 of 84
    more like final crap pro
  • Reply 4 of 84
    Oops! I guess Adobe does do some things better than Apple. Good. The market speaks, a know-it-all corporation responds. Chalk this up as a tiny win for consumer demand / capitalism.
  • Reply 5 of 84
    modemode Posts: 163member
    Seems on track with Apple's strategy of chasing away professionals to court mainstream consumers.

    Sucks for those who actually produce with the products - but not for the investors.



    The iMac changed everything. The iPod validated the shift.

    There's been a cascading effect ever since.



    iPhone seems to be the exception.
  • Reply 6 of 84
    I won't deny FCPX's shortcomings, and people are going to continue to enjoy ragging on it in the near term, but every time I use it I find more really smart thinking at the core of the program.



    It's not ready for everyone yet, but I see the problems of FCPX as more of a mismanagement of customer expectations than a technical one. There's too much great stuff going on in this program for it to be considered a failure by any reasonable person.



    People will laugh now, but I'm not sure they'll be laughing so hard in a year or two.
  • Reply 7 of 84
    Mmm - this ought to worry Apple somewhat. Premiere Pro has always been most attractive to those with a foot in graphics and web delivery - not necessarily the same broadcast/film market that Avid chases, but not too far from where Apple pitched FCP X. In this market Premiere's a very good product, with acknowledged strengths.



    I've felt since this release that the FCP user base would split 40/30/20/10, with 40% hanging on to FCS 3 for as long as it lives, 30% going Adobe, 20% going Avid and 10% embracing the new order. New users I'd split 40/40/20 with Avid picking up the 20% with an interest in the high end collaboration space. I hold with that still. Avid's figures would be instructive here.
  • Reply 8 of 84
    tylerk36tylerk36 Posts: 1,037member
    Maybe Apple should have come out with two versions of Final Cut 10. The first being Final Cut Pro that is like the older version (interface familiar) and just plain Final Cut for the general consumer with the new interface. Maybe that would be the way to go. I am sure Steve has voiced his opinion to the department that came out with the 10 version.
  • Reply 9 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by fearless View Post


    not too far from where Apple pitched FCP X. In this market it's a very good product, with acknowledged strengths.



    I agree... and what consumer video maker ever aspires to be just a consumer? Very few... and those that do will be satisfied by iMovie. Every consumer that aspires to be a Pro one day will be recommended Premiere or Avid over FCPX now.



    Every film school is going to stop teaching FCP because it's now being considered a dead end for students who one day want a place in the industry.



    There is some real genius in FCPX but it has been poorly branded, poorly marketed and Apple has given very little communication to it's established customers about what direction it is taking FCP.
  • Reply 10 of 84
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Adobe announced 45 percent growth year over year for its video creation tools on the Mac on Thursday, driven in part by switchers dissatisfied with Apple's controversial Final Cut Pro X.







    Quote:
    Originally Posted by theguycalledtom


    Every consumer that aspires to be a Pro one day will be recommended Premiere or Avid over FCPX now.



    Every film school is going to stop teaching FCP because it's now being considered a dead end for students who one day want a place in the industry.



    Yeah, that's a very serious problem. Apple knows better than anyone that mindshare is a fundamental part of succeeding in a market. Final Cut Pro wasn't perfect but it had that mindshare. Final Cut Pro X has lost some for this brand.



    I don't think Premiere has much mindshare either though. They could probably do with rebranding it. At this stage they might as well call it Adobe Gaylord. For years it's been seen as the poor Windows user's Final Cut that they have to endure.



    They can rework a set of core features specifically for high-end production and call it Adobe Cinema or something. They could even try what Apple has done with Motion and FCPX with AE and Premiere - give them the same render engine. After Effects is a highly respected piece of software. If they allowed you to cut video in it, they could maintain the AE brand alone or justify the rebrand.



    You would essentially have just an extra composition but this would be an NLE comp with audio layers and you would be able to drop AE comps into the NLE comp timeline. The NLE comp would be real-time. No more intermediates, incredibly simple way to implement complex title cards, transitions and effects. They can use the database file structure too to save memory usage and opening/saving times.
  • Reply 11 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tylerk36 View Post


    Maybe Apple should have come out with two versions of Final Cut 10. The first being Final Cut Pro that is like the older version (interface familiar) and just plain Final Cut for the general consumer with the new interface. Maybe that would be the way to go. I am sure Steve has voiced his opinion to the department that came out with the 10 version.



    Well, they kinda had that with Final Cut Pro and Express. Express did all the prosumer stuff that's there in FCP X, and didn't make EDLs or OMFs or work with higher-end tape, disk and card formats. So the split was already there - but they threw away the high end, and left us a new, 64-bit glossy version of Final Cut Express, that's waiting to grow up all over again.
  • Reply 12 of 84
    morkymorky Posts: 200member
    It's not that FCPX will be a failure; it won't. It's just that Apple handled the transition horribly, which has severely damaged the trust they had engendered in the industry. When FCPX can do what most pros need in terms of multi cam, XML, etc., they will be back, not because of love for Apple, but because competitors using FCPX will be so much more productive, they will have no choice.
  • Reply 13 of 84
    Pretty accurate
  • Reply 14 of 84
    tfgtfg Posts: 8member
    Professional editor here: I secretly wish Adobe would start to take tv professionals seriously and comepete with Avid. There's a lot of features they'd have to implement for that, but that would be a breath of fresh air into my work day.
  • Reply 15 of 84
    It's only been 2 1/2 months since FCP X was released. How fast do people make big decisions like this? Final Cut Studio was still in the hands of professionals and now it's available again. It's not like Apple took it away from them.



    And Premiere is simply awful.
  • Reply 16 of 84
    z3r0z3r0 Posts: 238member
    Sometimes I wonder if Apple secretly wanted FCP X to fail so that they would loose significant share in the pro video market. That way they could buyout adobe without a problem/probe from DOJ. Well that's my hopeful conspiracy theory!
  • Reply 17 of 84
    z3r0z3r0 Posts: 238member
    Yes, Premiere is awful because it has a pro user interface that is very familiar and easy to learn. It's also awful because it has had background rendering and all the features that Apple promised to add to FCP years before



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleZilla View Post


    It's only been 2 1/2 months since FCP X was released. How fast do people make big decisions like this? Final Cut Studio was still in the hands of professionals and now it's available again. It's not like Apple took it away from them.



    And Premiere is simply awful.



  • Reply 18 of 84
    This has more to do with the promotion that Adobe was pushing when this happened more than it did with people not being happy with FCP X. Had Premiere stayed the same price, I highly doubt they would have seen this much of an increase in sales.
  • Reply 19 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tylerk36 View Post


    Ok. If it's not broken don't fix it. Maybe an interface revision for FC 10.1. Seriously!



    It's.



    Not.



    The.



    Interface.
  • Reply 20 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sheff View Post


    Apple pulled a funny on FC. It reminded me of the switch from iMovie (HD?) to the new iMovie 08 if memory serves me correctly. Those that lived through this will know what I am talking about. I kept that old version till 09 and was not fully satisfied till 11.



    I think it may take apple a few versions before people who left come back to FC.



    I think they mistakenly applied the lesson of iMovie to FCPX. When they made the similar change in iMovie, advanced customers grumbled and new or simple users didn't care/notice. Advanced customers either reluctantly stuck with the old version, or upgraded to FCP. Apple didn't lose any customers.



    With FCPX they might have thought "Well people grumbled about iMovie, but in the end it didn't hurt us any". Forgetting that professionals are not like light weight home users. First, they tend to be more particular about their tools and have a lot more time invested in how those tools work. Second, unlike the iMovie transition they didn't have another Apple product to move to if it didn't meet their needs. Third, since they've already proven they are willing to pay more money (compared to iMovie) for tools that fit their needs, they probably are still willing to pay that money for tools that fit their needs. So if FCPX doesn't fit their needs, they'll buy Adobe (assuming it fits their needs).



    Understandably Apple didn't want to wait any longer before getting a product out, so they could start getting some revenue from it. They simply did it in the wrong way. They did the right thing by lowering the price on FCPX, but it should also have include a slightly updated FCP as well. It would have been a "Here's some minor improvements to FCP to get you buy for now, and look at this preview release that shows the future of FC." If you were an intermediate FCP user, you might use the new interface, advanced users would have said "meh", and they still would have got some iMovie upgrades.



    Ultimately this shows yet again that Apple doesn't "get it" when it comes to business users. In the long term they will have to learn or their growth will be limited.
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