Well, we finally know what Apple's been working on during the last couple years while Final Cut Pro users have been waiting and wondering... They offered a glimpse of the new "Final Cut Pro X" on the Supermeet stage they appropriated from their various industry partners one week prior to the event.
Emmanuel Pampuri has the presentation, captured from the audience, on Vimeo...
I will say that Apple is certainly capable of creating more marketing momentum from small amounts of precisely applied information than any company in any business that I've ever seen. I don't think that it is overstating the situation to say that this is their genius.
In this case the momentum seems divided between two camps. There are those who look at what little they saw and imply a "prosumer direction" due to the streamlined interface and its similarity to iMovie...
Scott Simmons compares the iMovie and FCPX "magnetic timelines..."
There are those who have anointed FCPX as "the future of editing..."
Videomaker magazine declares FCPX "Best Editing Software of NAB 2011"
...I guess there wasn't a category for "Best Keynote Presentation Showing Screen Grabs of Software that Doesn't Exist Yet.".
I'd say that the jury will be out until we see something we can at least test drive. QuickTime has been left to seed as the first computer company with a 64 bit OS now needs to completely gut its 32 bit media architecture 8 years later, so the changes coming from Apple will undoubtedly be significant.
I for one don't believe that a streamlined interface is a blatant cue that the application will lack the sophistication a professional needs...but then I also believe that presenting "background rendering" as if it's cutting edge technology when it was a feature in Pinnacle editing software nearly a decade ago (before Avid acquired them), is pure Apple, playing catch up without ever losing the swagger.
One thing is certain, it's nearly impossible to find a neutral opinion on what transpired during the presentation, which keeps the industry buzzing...which is what illustrates the genius in not revealing too much, but tossing a few hints out to seed the prognostication of Apple's motivations, intentions, and direction.
Hopefully the buzz level stays high enough that they get the bounce they'd like at release as no matter what Apple's charts say about their user base growth and market share, Avid and Adobe are gaining ground every day that there isn't a freshly minted Final Cut Pro version to evaluate.
Of course, once Apple's media architecture starts experiencing version 1 bumps in the road, look for Apple's computer platform to get some scrutiny as Microsoft's Windows 7 builds on an already fairly solid start...
That's all I've got as my crystal ball is starting to fog up...
TimK
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